To commemorate America’s 250th anniversary we will post next week an op-ed from Pepperdine economist Gary M. Galles, who reminds us of the inspirational words left behind by those who won our liberty. One statement, a warning from George Washington, stands out in a time when this nation is electing some of the worst candidates imaginable.

“Government,” Washington said, “is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is a force, like fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”

We see irresponsibility in government all across the country because the worst among us far too often get to the top, raised there by voters who are either too gullible to see that they’ve been taken in, or are true believers in the tyranny of leftist politics.

“Terrible masters” have been elected the mayors of New York City, Seattle, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Los Angeles will elect another one this fall, either the Castro-ite incumbent will get another four years to torment the citizenry, or her challenger, a council member who could drag the city of angels back to a demonic “Marxist 19th century” existence, will get her chance to ruin the town that had long been the envy of many but has become an oozing sore on the nation.

As we noted Tuesday, there could be 10 socialist mayors in the U.S. by the end of this year. If only that were the extent of it. Congress has a pair of prominent socialists in Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents the radical, the lazy, the ignorant, and the useful idiots in her Bronx-Queens district. Joining them might be Graham Platner of Maine, who has no interest in civil service and would rather be the raging fire that burned our connections to our past so that his tribe of political savages can take more ground for the far left.

We should expect, and even fear, more will come, because, as our poll shows, nearly half (46%) of Democrats hold a favorable view of socialism.

No surprise there, though. Democrats have been trending toward socialism for decades, and this is who they are now: Terrible masters who are the irresponsible actors Washington cautioned us about. Their policies encumber rather than liberate. Their objective is to rule rather than respect constitutional boundaries. They can’t tolerate dissent, patriotism, or challenges to their power-hungry agenda.

They thrive on lies, promise Heaven but deliver hell, sow division at every opportunity in hopes of creating chaos that only they can straighten out with the boot of the state, and traffic in political violence both directly and indirectly. The evil twin Cs, as they see it, are Christianity and capitalism, both of which must be stamped out. The virtuous C in their twisted minds stands for censorship.

Democrats at every level are the worst among us in every case. Yes, there was a time when it seemed the Democrats wanted the same outcomes as Republicans and conservatives, a better America for all, but just had different ideas (always more government) about how to achieve that. But now they are building the foundations for a reign of terror in a society most wouldn’t recognize or even imagine.

We mentioned on Tuesday that socialism historically has tended to be a short-lived fad in the U.S. Expecting history to repeat itself isn’t enough, though. Hope is at the ballot box, where voters need to emphatically, with prejudice, reject the increasingly hate-America Democratic Party that’s overflowing with terrible masters.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board