“But they meant well...”

This is the machine commonly employed by the starry-eyed idealist of all ages who is so sure their simplistic “solutions” are all it takes to solve age-old societal problems.
  Yet this is the machine that insists on moving forward like a streetsweeper, whilst erasing/ignoring the history left behind in its path.
  Thus it has no foundation and nothing from which to learn.
  Fools and knaves both utilise the machine. The fools may spout their nonsense and do little else than posture publicly and pull the lever in the voting booth. The knaves, on the other hand, may talk the same talk about the Cause, but know full well that the results of their intentions will disenfranchise particular segments of a given populace.
  The machine also works on a micro scale (minus media manipulation) as well as macro — interpersonal relationships, business, etc.

  The Fabians had their hammer; the Progressives have their State. The results are often disastrously similar, and the excuse is always the same.