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“What Would the Founders Do?” (Book Review)
Rick Brookhiser’s new book “What Would the Founders Do?” is out … you can read what I thought of it here.
[Pointer-posted because it's long.]
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3 Responses to ““What Would the Founders Do?” (Book Review)”
Heh, is this the right’s answer to Glenn Greenwald’s How Would a Patriot Act??
I enjoyed his biography of Hamilton. I find these sorts of exercises specious, however. For one thing, the Founders are of one mind? The Constitution is a work of compromise, not necessarily collective agreement so much as collective acquiescence for the good of the Republic. The Founders agreed that the Articles of Confederation failed. But they didn’t necessarily agree on why the Articles failed. The resulting Constitution was a result of late 18th century pols trying to handle the era’s pressing political problems with respect to the various class and ideological positions held throughout the 13 states. Over-reliance on the “Founders’ wisdom,” is one of this country’s greatest crutches. Sure, it’s wise to keep in mind what some of these extraordinary people had to say about religion and the state, or entangling alliances, but to behave as if they are of one coherent mind, as many so-called “strict constructionists” do, is foolish.
Keeping in mind that nothing political is perfect, I wonder if any reader here in this blog knows the difference between…Direct Democracy and Representative Democracy, and the paramount reason why the founding fathers chose Representative Democracy as the way to govern our nation over Direct Democracy?
Wikipedia is a first place to start finding the answer. Or does any other readers really care about the difference.