In the twelve months leading up to next year’s American semiquincentennial, the tale will frequently be told of Benjamin Franklin’s encounter with Philadelphia matron Elizabeth Willing Powel, who asked, as Franklin left the Constitutional Convention: “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” To which the 81-year-old sage replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” That caveat remains as true today as when Franklin engraved it in the national memory on September 17, 1787.
“Keeping it” is, indeed, a task for “We, the People,” the phrase that begins the Preamble of the Constitution Franklin helped write. For “We, the People” were the progenitors of the United States. John Adams put this succinctly in an 1818 letter, written as the country approached its golden jubilee: “But what do We mean by the American Revolution? Do We mean the American War? The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the Minds and Hearts of the People.”
So if the republican convictions and sentiments of “We the People” deteriorate, the republic is in danger.
Are we amidst such a moment, a year before the national celebration of “America 250”?
Serious, self-inflicted challenges to our republican and constitutional form of government have not been lacking over the past two hundred fifty years. These have often taken the form of governmental overreach by autocratically inclined presidents: Woodrow Wilson’s harassment and lock-up of antiwar protesters and FDR’s internment of unimpeachably patriotic Japanese-American citizens are two sorry twentieth-century examples. But as Mark Helprin pointed out in the Wall Street Journal six weeks ago, the current danger to republican constitutionalism is rooted in the “people’s lack of supervision in granting agency and approval to elected officials high and low who depart from the principles of the Founding and the discipline and design of the Constitution.”
Less elegantly: “We, the People” are dropping the ball.
How?
The recent record of such defaults in “lack of supervision” spans several presidential administrations and is wholly bipartisan in character (or lack thereof). Why is it, to cite Helprin again, that “We, the People” tolerate it when “a sheepish congressional majority behaves like a battered wife; when judges legislate and executive agencies judge; and when courts inconvenience the executive or Congress and what follows are threats to impeach or otherwise bind judges…”?
Or to get down to immediate cases:
Why do those grateful for several initiatives taken by the current administration not recognize that the administration demeans itself (and the country) when the president and his former Designated Government Shrinker, Mr. Musk, behave like two kindergarten brats fighting over the paste sticks — which, beyond the embarrassment caused, signals a profound lack of seriousness to our enemies in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and elsewhere?
Why do those who lament the Democratic Party’s enthrallment to woke culture and politics not ostracize and then consign to political oblivion the flamethrower politicians whose rhetoric helped make possible the antisemitic outrages in Harrisburg, Washington, and Boulder?
And where is Congress, that putatively independent branch of the federal government? One sometimes gets the impression that Article One of the Constitution has been virtually repealed in the minds of many Senators and Representatives, who seem to imagine themselves as mechanical tote boards sent to the Capitol to register whatever their loudest constituents demand in social media screeds — or to approve whatever the Big Guy at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue decrees. When was the last time “We, the People” let our elected representatives know that we expect mature, considered judgment from them, not a wetted forefinger raised into the political winds?
A year short of its 250th birthday, the United States remains a marvel: a continental-wide republic of 340 million people that, for all the defects just noted, remains the world’s most egalitarian society, the world center of innovation, and the free world’s best hope for leadership in confronting tyrannies with aggression on their minds. Still, “We, the People” have a lot of work to do to get our act together, so that we can celebrate “America 250” with gratitude and hope rather than soured spirits.
That national civic renewal will begin when, one by one, “We, the People” rebuild the link between freedom and virtue; recommit themselves to republican constitutionalism; refuse to countenance demagoguery by holding hold elected officials accountable to adult standards of behavior; and conduct ourselves in debate, public or interpersonal, in a manner befitting the maturity we should have achieved in two and a half centuries of national life.
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I wondered how long it would take Weigel to slam Trump, and it was only five full paragraphs before he referred to him as one of “two kindergarten brats fighting over the paste sticks.” Typical Weigel.
As far as Congress, the past couple of weeks have reminded me of the old saying that, “you do not want to see how sausages and laws are made.” Members of congress, for the most part, will not vote to cut spending in their districts. so, we have two trillion dollar/year deficits into the foreseeable future. At some point we will reap the results of this, and it will not be good.
Yes, deficits matter. Then what is good about tax cuts for the rich that add trillions to the National Debt?
Whether taxes should be cut with our deficit is one question. But, if we are going to cut taxes, the negative phrase “tax cuts for the rich” has no real meaning, as the internet shows that the upper 50% of income earners pay 97% of federal income taxes. You cannot cut taxes for people who are not paying taxes.
Ideally, the “rich” will invest the money that isn’t taken by the government in more businesses, factories, hospitals, arts centers and projects, schools, churches, etc., all of which provide jobs, and in many cases, create wealth for their town, city, and state.
Even if the rich invest their money in lavish expenses like wardrobes, bigger houses and recreational toys, cars, etc.–hopefully they will buy U.S. rather than foreign (although many don’t).
The rich are the ones most likely to have the money to pay off various projects that have sat around for decades; e.g. in my former city, a wealthy couple, after touring the Coronado theater in Rockford, IL, decided to contribute a large financial amount and lobby all their wealthy friends, along with the local corporations, and also theater lovers around the nation, to fixing up this theater–and now it is considered one of the best atmospheric theaters in the country! Even the stars and clouds work and are used for all the concerts, plays, and local recitals that are booked there! Celebrities also come to the theater for various projects, which brings even more income into the city. And of course, there are quite a few jobs for the local people!
By the way, the wealthy people in that town also maintain a fund that can be accessed by “poor” people, especially poor children, to come to the productions at the theater.
Pres. Trump has stepped in many times to help struggling projects that he decided were worthwhile. E.g., the Figure Skating Club of Harlem was floundering, as the coach who started it had been paying for everything out of her own savings. She appealed to several wealthy New Yorkers, and one who responded with generous donations was Donald Trump (who apparently likes the sport of figure skating, although I don’t think he himself does it)! Most people don’t know this. He hasn’t publicized it. Most rich people do stay quiet about their charitable efforts.
This is just one example of what “moral” rich people can and do spend their money on.
I’ve never been hired by poor person.
We should be encouraging business owners & corporations to stay in the States instead of incentivizing them to move their production abroad. AI & automation will likely impact us in greater ways in the future & we should try to hold on to any jobs we can.
For over 40 years, we have been told by Republicans that Supply Side Economics will help us all. Cutting taxes for the rich will somehow make us all better off. Well, we tried this and the wealthy keep getting wealthier and the rest of us fall farther behind.
The ultra wealthy pay a much lower percentage of their income in taxes than they did back in the 1950’s. Actually about half what they used to percentage wise.
The minimum wage has not moved in 15 years. The working poor are getting hammered and the Republicans want to cut Medicaid more and more. How about a little economic Justice for the working poor?
Oh,I forgot. Jeff Bezos needs more cash to pay for his $50 million wedding. Meanwhile, poor people will have to forego medical care so the rich can get richer.
Crusader has already noted that the political buzz phrase “tax cuts for the rich” has no connection with reality.
George Weigel is a never trumpet. President Trump is becoming one the most positive consequential presidents of all time much Mr. Weigel ‘s chagrin. I’m catholic and couldn’t be more proud of our president. He is doing what I voted for.
“Never trumpet.”
Thank you. That’s pretty clever. 🙂
You voted for running up the debt by another 3-5 trillion dollars? You voted for the president to violate the Constitution in seizing the control over tariffs that is the purview of Congress in Article 1 of the Constitution? Or who arbitrarily obstructs the implementation of a law passed by Congress (i.e. the TikTok ban)?
Sorry, Anthony, for making you think about specifics for a moment. I know 1) that you won’t be able to answer the points I raised and 2) that you really just wanted to fuss about Weigel not venerating your orange hero. SAD!
Agreed. Weigel is just upset that there’s no more room in the Republican party for neoclassical like himself.
The wisest political philosopher in US history, Pogo, said it best, “we have met the enemy and he is us.” IF our nation is to survive, we must stop hating “them” and start looking inside ourselves. We must accept that the fundamental unit of society, the family, is, for millions of Americans, in bad shape. Dads are not dads; moms are not moms. The result is two generations of ignorant people, some with PhDs, who do not have a clear understanding of our society. Who is responsible for raising our children? Where do they get their bedrock values, without which, our nation will fail, perhaps violently. Have we ever turned off the ball game and talked to our kids? About sex? Money? Hard work? Education? How do We contend with evil? Will we make 250 years? Or??