Back in the old days, we used to have three branches of government. We did it for a reason. The reason was that we knew, by experience, what happened when a single ruler misused his power.

People fought for the right to be free of that kind of tyranny. They were in many cases British by birth, but still joined an army to fight to have a republic where the people had rights and the congress they elected could control the money. That's right, the congress would control the money.

In those days the government cared about people's health, and would track diseases and give us advice about how to prevent them. That actually worked and made us healthier.

And there were schools. We'd keep track of how well people could read, and we'd be proud when more could read and read better. We were proud of knowing things. The problem was, when you knew stuff, you voted the wrong way.