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Temperament of a Moderate Independent
Jon Meacham Reviewed “Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic” in the NYT Book Review this weekend. He helped highlight some of the book’s profound observations:
“America was constructed to foster arguments, not to settle them.”
“Modern political campaigns talk of revolution when in fact the founding gave us a nation that prefers evolution.”
“…while perfection may not be possible, progress is.”
“To transform disagreement from a natural source of strife into a source of stability was a crucial insight, and is arguably the great achievement of the Constitution. What frustrates the passionate about America — its creaky checks and balances, diffuse sovereignties and general aversion to sudden change — is, Ellis argues, what makes possible the triumphs we do manage to pull off.”
“Ellis shares the founders’ tragic sensibility, finding redemption in seeking the good rather than in achieving the perfect. The wisdom of the American founding lies in the recognition that the former is possible, and the latter is not.”
“The acknowledgment of limitation and the appreciation that the founders themselves purposely moved with caution is hardly the stuff that emotional Independence Day orations are made of, but they are essential truths about America’s beginning, and may help explain why our revolution worked when others failed. As Ellis says, “In my judgment the calculated decision to make the American Revolution happen in slow motion was a creative act of statesmanship that allowed the United States to avoid the bloody and chaotic fate of subsequent revolutionary movements in France, Russia and China.â€
“…one man’s obvious reform is another man’s nightmare.”
“Unlike mathematics, in politics there was no agreed-upon solution reached by sheer brainpower and logic,†Ellis writes, “but rather an ongoing and never-ending struggle between contested versions of the truth.†Making it up as one goes along, then, is in the best tradition of the American Revolution.”
“..what Adams’s generation did with its moment was to create the means by which subsequent generations, including our own, could argue about ends in a largely peaceable way.”
I see merits in most points of view. Generally I support the Democratic Party values, but hope for the frugality and efficiency I once thought was the domain of the GOP. Meanwhile what is important to me is nurturing a deliberative process that constantly enhances participation, diversity, experimentation, fairness, pragmatism, and all of the other qualities with which our founding fathers wanted to guide us – all of which I believe are the consequence of reforming our system of financing elections.
This week is Fair Elections Action Week aimed specifically at supporting the Fair Elections Now Act sponsored by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) that would allow for full public financing of congressional elections. I called my Congressman to ask for his support. Will you choose to be part of the solution, as well?
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12 Responses to “Temperament of a Moderate Independent”
Generally I support the Democratic Party values, but hope for the frugality and efficiency I once thought was the domain of the GOP.
“Real” Democrats will consider you a traitor, just as they chafe at current Congressional finance rules.
Bush has done it again (at least aping, pun intended, the “frugality” part). What will the whiners do, predictably?
If you read the story at the first link (“Congressional finance rules”), you’ll see how modern Republicans sometimes fail to be frugal themselves.
If Bush is so frugal, let him cut some of the pork that defense contractors get, or pay Blackwater’s personnel only twice what enlisted men make!
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He signed the defense bill, while vetoing the other bills.
And the price tag for the war?
Note that that “price tag” claim was made by Democrats using some creative arithmetic.
Meanwhile, Thompson wants a larger military.
Here is an example of “frugality” — redefining post-traumatic stress disorder as personality disorder so as to claim a pre-existing condition and ineligibility for veterans’ health care upon returning from Iraq, plus sometimes a bill from the Army if they were discharged early. (example story)
I also wonder if “frugality” was behind the reluctance to replace one AIDS test for another when screening donor organs. The transplant organ allocation system is so desperate that it uses “extended criteria donor” organs and even takes organs from high-risk donors. The result this week is word that transplant recipients were infected with HIV and the virus for hepatitis C from a high-risk donor. Yes, it can happen. Was this from cost savings?
My favorite word from the book review (and thus, the book) is PRAGMATISM.
I wonder how many knock-down political fights could be avoided if only pragmatism were aloowed to take precedence over partisan idealism.
I’vecontacted my Congress people to ask them to support the Faor Election Now act.
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great post. I signed the petition and will try to find tme today to conatct my Senators and Rep. I wish they had one of those auto-contact forms on the Public Campaign Web site. Those do work, they do get noticed, and sometimes responded to.
Well, the unshiny side, the imperfect side is in broad view and more than ever. Enemies and allies no longer need to spy or rubber neck over the neighborly fence to see over into what is going on in our yard.
So caution and evolution is the order of the day. I wonder how that matches more passionate historical events. Or more importantly who then would such a process favor? What would make one group outlast another? Who would you say has outlasted the other historically?
Spirasol
Interesting post. I have stumbled and twittered this for my friends. Hope others find it as interesting as I did.