The Founders' Political Vision Lives Today

Yesterday's blog may have put the cart of my thoughts before the horse of their political history. American politics has always been driven by the Founders' political philosophy. For 250 years, there have been two competing themes -- the universal truth of the equality and liberty of all people, and the desire to create a government that regulates equality and liberty and leads to federal government oppression. Actually, these themes have existed since Plato wrote the Republic around 380 BC. ~~~~~ According to Plato, a state is made up of different kinds of "souls" that tend, over time, to decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by the honorable), to an oligarchy (rule by the few), to a democracy (rule by the people), and finally to tyranny (rule by one person, a tyrant). Aristocracy is the form of government advocated in Plato's Republic because the state is ruled by a philosopher-king, and thus is grounded on wisdom and reason. The aristocracy, and the person whose nature makes him or her its philosopher-king, are the subjects of Plato's Republic. In a timocracy, the ruling class is made up primarily of those with a warrior-like character -- Plato had the honor-based Spartan military state in mind. Oligarchy is a society in which wealth is the criterion of merit and the wealthy are in control. In a democracy, the state resembles ancient Athens, with traits such as equality of political opportunity and freedom for the individual to do as he likes. But for Plato, democracy can degenerate into tyranny, caused by the conflict of rich and poor. Tyranny is an undisciplined society existing in chaos, where the tyrant rises as a popular champion while amassing his own private army leading to increasing oppression. One of Plato's comments is frighteningly appropriate to today's America : "Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings, and leaders genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities [states] will have no rest from evils,...nor, I think, will the human race." ( Republic 473c-d.). ~~~~~ Plato's political philosophy was, in turn, accepted or rejected for 2,000 years until Locke, Rousseau and Burke linked it to the 18th century scientific, anti-monarchy social and political Enlightenment. It was the driving force for the leaders of the American Revolution, who read and debated political philosophy as their source of action. There have been only two political philosophers in American history who have not only done the fundamental thinking but also served in government -- Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. ~~~~~ Jefferson's philosophical construct was based on the belief that people have "certain inalienable rights" and that "rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others..." A proper government, serves by preventing individuals in society from infringing on the liberty of other individuals, but a proper government also restrains its own instinct to diminish individual liberty as a way to protect against tyranny of the majority. The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson's pinnacle of political philosophy put into practice, would eventually be considered an enduring statement of human rights. "All men are created equal" has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language," containing "the most potent and consequential words in American history." The passage evolved into a moral standard to which the United States should strive. This view was notably promoted by Abraham Lincoln, who argued for the Declaration as a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted. Thomas Jefferson is the towering figure in American democracy. He envisioned democracy as an expression of society as a whole, and called for national self- determination, cultural uniformity, and education. Jefferson believed that public education and a free press were essential to a democratic nation : "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be....The people cannot be safe without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe." Jefferson turned his philosophical conviction of the equality and liberty of all people and his fear of any government's motives into the guiding light for modern democracy and the Declaration that is the cornerstone of America's political system. ~~~~~ James Madison, unlike Jefferson, believed in a strong federal government, and tried to convince the Constitutional Convention -- that he called and led through his outline of what the Constitution should contain -- to give the federal government final power over the states. The delegates refused, fearing that Madison"s extreme position would bring down the United States. But, Madison, the Federalist, was also the Founder who defended the proposed Constitution with its limited, delegated federal powers in the Federalist Papers. And Madison wrote the Bill of Rights in order to convince those who favored a very weak federal government, the anti-Federalists or Republicans, that their rights would be protected. Between them, these two great philosopher-politicians established the two political groups that continue to today -- Jefferson, the Republican, and Madison, the Democrat. Their different approaches to the federal-state balance have continued, and today they are being espoused by the Right Pole (Jefferson) and the Left Pole (Madison). ~~~~~ As with all great political phosophers, someone must make their precepts more easily understood. For Jefferson and Madison, it was Thomas Paine who galvanized the colonists throughout the Revolution with his pamphlets. The most popular was Common Sense, which was bought by 500,000 of the two million revolutionary Americans, a 25% proportional selling feat never since equaled. John Adams said : "Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain." Paine began Common Sense with words immortal in American political history : "The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly : it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated." The title Common Sense was actually suggested by Benjamin Franklin, Paine's patron. In the late 18th century, "common sense" was the belief that ordinary people can make sound judgments on major political issues, and that there exists a body of popular wisdom that is readily apparent to anyone. Paine also used a notion of "common sense" favored by philosophers in the Enlightenment. They held that common sense could refute the claims of traditional institutions. Thus, Paine used "common sense" as a weapon to de-legitimize the monarchy and overturn prevailing conventional wisdom. The phenomenal appeal of his pamphlet came from his synthesis of the popular and elite elements in the American revolution. ~~~~~ Today, while there are no American philosopher-politicians, there is the enduring heritage of the Founders, in Jefferson's Declaration and Madison's Constitutuon. And there are presidential candidates to explain their version of that heritage to voters. Americans either rally behind the belief that small government best serves liberty and equality, or they rally behind the belief that the majority must be restrained to prevent the denial of minority rights and that big government understands best how to do this equitably. All other American political disagreements derive from these two positions. ~~~~~ Today's Republican turmoil in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election is most clearly embodied in Donald Trump. As political analyst Alex Castellanos wrote recently for CNN : "Trump is more than a legacy of Republican inaction. He is the inevitable result of decades of progressive failure. He is where frustrated nations turn when top-down, industrial age government fails to deliver what it promised and presents chaos instead. When a government that has pledged to do everything can’t do anything, otherwise sensible people turn to the strongman. This is how the autocrat, the popular dictator, gains power. We are seduced by his success and strength." ~~~~~ And that, dear readers, is pure Plato, explained to 2016 American voters.