"viewing the subject on its merits alone, the freeholders of the country would be the safest depositories of republican liberty. in future times a great majority of the people will not only be without landed, but any other sort of property. these will either combine under the influence of their common situation; in which case the rights of property and the public liberty will not be secure in their hands, or, which is more probable, they will become the tools of opulence and ambition; in which case there will be equal danger on another side." james madison. the records of the federal convention of 1787. max farrad ed. vol.II p.203___________like jay or hamilton, madison doesn't have much faith in the ability of "the people" to actually rule themselves...and at fist glance, given the current state of the presidency, it may seem his prediction has a touch of prescience...except for the "freeholder" part...it starts to come unglued there...a freeholder, in this context, is someone who holds real property...a landed individual...a member of the upper crust...the elite in varying proportions...but of a superior class than the industrial masses...elite rule, of which republicanism is a milder form than say oligarchy...but elite rule none the less...that the "great majority" was kept "without any other sort of property" through policies promulgated by that "republican liberty" ( especially the upward redistribution of wealth that has been going on for the last thirty-six years ) which was allegedly established to represent those self-same "people" was of little consequence to madison since he equated "property" ( which would not be "secure" in the hands of the people ) with "the public liberty" ensuring that, in his view, the unpropertied could not grasp "liberty" and so could not rule themselves much less the country...as much as some of the elite may loathe him, don trump is of that elite..no less so than clinton is...or madison was for that matter...unfortunately for madisons analysis "the people" are more than able to see the deck is stacked against them and they are irate...trump manipulated that anger to his and the elite's advantage...there is nothing new here people..nothing at all.
