The Founders Foresaw the Day

Thomas Jefferson:

To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

 I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. 

 When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

 John Adams:

“Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either [aristocracy or monarchy]. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

Benjamin Franklin:

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, — if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. 

Alexander Hamilton:

I believe the British government forms the best model the world ever produced, and such has been its progress in the minds of the many, that this truth gradually gains ground. This government has for its objectpublic strength and individual security. It is said with us to be unattainable. All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born, the other the mass of the people. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government. Can a democratic assembly, who annually revolve in the mass of the people, be supposed steadily to pursue the public good? 

You could easily find many more, but the clear belief seeming to pervade their statements is that allowing a mass to confiscate the wealth, property, rights and estates of the industrious is an inevitable long-term result of democracy.

That truth accounts for their establishment of a republican form with very limited mass electorate involvement in decision making. The democratization of America in which we introduced popular election of the Senate, wide expansion of suffrage, and a popularity contest among the general populace for the Presidency are all steps along the path of destruction.

Simply watching the day's activity on the debt ceiling debate is all the confirmation you would need.