Read this Alexander Hamilton quote. Then read it again. The founders KNEW what was coming.

[Azathoth]

24. Not really prophetic

Dangerous self-aggrandizing demagogues were as much a threat then as they are now. Hamilton isn't showing clairvoyance, he's simply stating what educated men at the time knew.

What makes Trump unique is how mediocre he is. The Founders assumed that republican government would naturally result in society's most talented rising to the levers of power, the danger being that the most talented man in the room is not always the wisest or the most ethical, and the more unscrupulous he is, the more of an advantage he gains. What they never saw coming was the power of modern mass media combined with the absurdly scripted nature of presidential campaigns. Basic talent is no longer required. Trump isn't a talented and dangerous demogogue, he's an idiot boy king handed the throne by a mass media entertainment complex. And that's the kind of Old World aristocratic excess the Founders thought they had left behind.