A friend of mine asked me to comment on an article he read by an author who characterized human beings in general as forgetful of their history; thus, continue to fall victim to the empty promises of their political leaders. My answer:
Whoever wrote the article you sent me is only pointing out the fact, that whenever people trust in their leaders to always act in their best interests, they will at best be disappointed, and at worst, enslaved. History teaches us that truth. Unfortunately, since we never seem to learn from our history we are destined to repeat it.
The founding fathers of America understood this better than anyone, and gave us a Constitution that enshrined the rights of freedom of speech, religion, the right to bear arms, and more. They also turned away from establishing a new monarchy in favor of a three-headed government, each one to provide a check of the other's power to insure a new dictator did not arise. They had had enough of the King of England and willingly risked their lives and fortunes to rid themselves of his tyrannical rule.
However, even in America we are not immune to complacency and tend to forget our history. If we continue on this path we, like every other great empire of the past, will fall. Nonetheless, I believe this latest attempt by the same kind of people who brought down previous empires will fail. They will fail because they have not been successful in destroying our Constitution, thus giving the true patriots in America time to "wake up" to the subtle erosion of our freedoms by a government we naively believed to be working in our best interests.
I hope I am right; for if I am not, and America falls to The Forces of Evil, the world will lose its greatest champion for truth and justice.