From character to caricature

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” -- John Adams, 2nd President of the U.S.

Peggy Noonan writes that perhaps American character isn't what it used to be: 

I've long thought that public dissatisfaction is about more than the economy, that it's also about our culture, or rather the flat, brute, highly sexualized thing we call our culture. Now I'd go a step beyond that. I think more and more people are worried about the American character—who we are and what kind of adults we are raising. Every story that has broken through the past few weeks has been about who we are as a people. And they are all disturbing...

"It behooves us to remember that men can never escape being governed. Either they must govern themselves or they must submit to being governed by others." -- Teddy Roosevelt