Politics & Power Quote by Elihu Root

Modern constitutional government, Root insists, is not a machine that runs on patriotism and good vibes. It is a demanding system with a user manual, and the electorate is expected to read it. The sentence is deliberately lawyerly: long, conditional, almost contractual. That style is the point. Root is smuggling in a civic standard of care. If constitutional government has "grown" more complex, then voters can no longer treat politics as a periodic outburst of feeling; they have obligations commensurate with the power they hold.

The intent is partly defensive. Root worked in an era of mass immigration, machine politics, yellow journalism, and rising populist movements that threatened to turn elections into referendums on resentment. His phrasing draws a bright line between constitutionalism (slow, mediated, rule-bound) and the shortcuts of plebiscitary passion. "Compels" is the sharp edge: the system doesn't politely request rational citizens; it requires them, or it fails.

The subtext is a warning about democratic self-sabotage. Root is arguing that rights without civic discipline are unstable, that constitutional checks and balances depend on voters who can tolerate complexity, delay, and compromise. He also reveals the era's patrician anxiety: the fear that expanding suffrage would dilute "considerate judgment". Yet there's a modern sting here too. If today's politics rewards instant reaction and tribal certainty, Root's line reads less like elitism than like a grim performance review: the Constitution can only be as smart as the people driving it.