Forty-four men have succeeded Washington so far. Some became titans; others finished their terms without distinction; a few ended their service to the nation in ignominy. But each of them knew that the day would come when it would be their duty and honor to return the presidency to the people.
All but one, that is.
The founding fathers got a lot of things right in a broad sense. However, the lack of details really screwed us.
The problem is that you can’t write out the details of how people might abuse a system centuries hence; people are really innovative about that. What they tried to do was build a system of competing centers of power, so that so long as the bulk of elected officials were interested in doing the right thing for the country, they’d be able to serve as a check on those who aren’t.
Our problem today is that we’ve got a major party which is interested in ending democracy, and which has a real chance of holding enough positions of power that it’s not possible for the majority of the people who stop them.