ADL's quote of the day (Niccolò Machiavelli)
 

"Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his preservation"

Point taken. But forward and positive changes in history are often made by such a person that "abandons what is done for what ought to be done." Just think Ghandi or Martin Luther King Jr or the Founding Fathers of the US. Surely, Machiavelli would have thought Franklin, Hancock, Hamilton, et al as crazy.... risking their lives to build a republic based on federalism and checks and balances against absolutist tendencies