By chance the other night while in the Basement of Doom, I picked up a slim volume I've had for a number of years. I ran across this:
King Log and King Stork
THE People being dissatisfied with a Democratic Legislature, which stole no more than they had, elected a Republican one, which not only stole all they had but exacted a promissory note for the balance due, secured by a mortgage upon their hope of death.
The words were written by Ambrose Bierce and published in 1898 as "Fantastic Fables." This is the era Karl Rove is taking us back to, one of Traditional Republican Values. You can find all of the fables online at:
http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/aesopab.html
If you've never read Bierce before, go and take a look. So much for progressive politics; what we have now is the Project for an Old American Century - and Bierce shows what it looks like.