a (not very) new despotism

George Washington was always wary of tyranny. But, crucially, he looked out for it in exactly the places it was actually likely to show up in a democracy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.

Selah.