Ben Franklin on the elected individuals who claim to represent us

It’s been hard to write in the wake of the opening semester, the Great Laptop Crash, and Alito, but here’s one nugget:

“Franklin, in a roundabout way, did endorse the idea that men are equal on the grounds of their mutual ignorance, vanity, foolish opinions, and pretensions to truth: The fact that human folly and imperfection is universal is the true root of equality.”

From a review of Jerry Weinberger’s new biography.