The de Tocqueville Dictum

When a young college student tells Barack Obama how she is struggling to pay for her college education, instead of commending her for her industry and hard work, and telling her how much the experience will benefit her for the rest of her life, he tells her that when he becomes president, he will help her out (i.e. a $4000.00 tax credit for college tuition, which presumably means a person must owe at least that much in taxes, but with Obama who knows?). This is the fulfillment, right before our eyes, of the de Tocqueville Dictum, which states, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money" (Alexis de Tocqueville). What Obama is telling this young woman is that he will take some of the hard-earned money of her friends and family members and give it to her to help cover the cost of education. He calls this fairness. I call it legalized theft and/or the redistribution of wealth and/or pandering to the "what's in it for me?" spirit. Or as de Tocqueville so insightfully called it over 150 years ago: bribing the public with the public's money. Once the de Tocqueville Dictum has become the standard political currency of the day, is it possible for a nation to ever go back? I am beginning to doubt it.