[TheRealThing]

Both are great quotes, but as far as I have been able to find, neither Franklin nor de Toqueville actually said either. The quotes have been attributed to Franklin and de Toqueville so many times that the truth will probably never be known. Unfortunately, given the bias of Google, the anti-American socialists may be effectively hiding corroborating documentation from me.

My favorite variation of this theme, which is well documented, was uttered by Margaret Thatcher, "The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." We are living under the boot of socialism and our government has run out of other people's money. Sometime in the not too distant future, other people around the world will start refusing to loan the U.S. money to squander.

America is under threat of a socialist takeover. A majority coalition comprised of voters who've either been on the take their whole lives, or are otherwise collegiately indoctrinated liberals with no world experience on which to draw, could be forming. I don't think that threshold has been met, but anybody can see it coming. As we have seen, just one party which BTW is only partially loyal to traditional conservatism, is just not enough to keep the lunacy at bay.

The EU is already about as socialist as they come and as such are about tapped out I would think, and in no position to loan the US any real money. That just leaves China, India, Taiwan, Brazil and a few others for us to lean on. But the point is it will be a sad day in this world when Communist China and socialist Europe will hold America's financial leash because she so willingly abdicated her place in the world. As far as I can tell the fundamental transformation hasn't slowed down one bit.