https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2025/08/26/we-get-the-government-we-deserve-n2662340

Article on Townhall: “We Get The Government We Deserve.” The author must be an optimist. No wait, he must be a pessimist.

This is similar to “You get what you pay for.” To which I invariably respond, “If you’re lucky.”

I frequently said that the Russians are a great people – science, music, literature, especially short stories. But they have been burdened with terrible governments: 300 years of the czars, 72 years of the communists, and now Putin.

But then I reconsidered. If a people have had bad governments for almost four centuries, perhaps they share some of the blame. After all, we never had a president known as “The Terrible.” We never had a president who was known as “The Great,” but who had his son tortured to death.

Whether we get the government we deserve makes for a lively argument. But to me, the thought is frightening.