Thank you for this. Must look up his writtings now

I zap any and all de Tocqueville

Great sentiments, but it sounded a little too modern to me to be De Tocqueville. If it was, socialists and virtually all modern governments didn't get his memo!

A little searching revealed that this is actually a quote from P.J. O'Rourke:

I realize that O'Rourke came after De Tocqueville and was possibly quoting him, and if that is proven then I'm happy to stand corrected.