"Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents."
"By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."
Mob rule, more than elitist fanaticism, has been the germ which has plagued mankind in the last century with massive wars and mass murder.
From the Nazi Worker's party turned genocide-machine to the Utopian paradise-turned-nightmare of Communism, from the temporary public benefits turned up-ending Ponzi Schemes of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, public clamor for en masse military action and public revenue for private perusal has undermined the health and welfare of the United States, jeopardizing its full faith and credit at home and abroad.
From the have-nots who demand more from the have-mores, so that they have little or nothing, to the military-industrial complex that harasses distant shores, we are witnessing the abject nihilistic power of public abuse of public office, not just of politicians' arbitrary appropriations, but the unconscientious voters who engage and enable such illegitimately legitimate looting of the public treasury.
The Public Interest of the United States will never be served by the General Will of its inhabitants: this sobering reality of human nature was Madison's central pretext for the Constitutional division of powers in the first place. Since the Constitution's ratification, we have witnessed this delicate ingenuity slowly undermined from the first convocation of Congress, to the passage of the 17th Amendment, to the nonsensical installation of entitlement programs, all in flagrant violation of the Ninth and Tenth amendments.
Tyranny of the majority, by voice, vote, or violence, will wreak havoc on a nation. Yet the current fiscal crises have sparked the concerted outrage of a conscientious minority demanding constitutional government and fiscal discipline, i.e. the Tea Party Movement.
Madison's reasoned concern regarding factional interests will serve this nation well, if the Populist Tea Party populism entrenches itself and perseveres in the face of the checks, balances, and stalling tactics of the statist status quo, and restore the Constitution to its proper respectful Supremacy.