Looking to  Franklin, Jefferson, and Paine to Save Our Constitutional Republic

Thomas Jefferson's view of government:

"Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now."

"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."

Thomas Paine's opinion:

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."

Finally, Benjamin Franklin on God and government:

"I have lived, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"