I’m reading a book called Founding Principles, written by Thomas Ricks. Ricks studied our founding fathers, with emphasis on the first four Presidents of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison and what they read, what they thought about, and how they were educated. They were all heavily influenced by the Greek and Roman philosophies, politics, and mores. They also had a heavy dose of Scottish Enlightenment.
What is amazing is that they not only thought deeply about the past, but they also thought deeply about the future, and not just their own future, but the future of a Republic they were creating. They differ from us significantly because of their emphasis in virtue, meaning the desire to look at the people, the country in public life over one’s own self-interest. They were aware that checks and balances needed to be in place to force different parts of the country and different people to work together. The notion of compromise was important, the notion of checks on self-dealing and corrupt behavior was important. Gridlock as it may happen in our current system was a feature to ensure all sides are heard. State managed elections and the electoral college was brilliant. It means there are no levers to invalidate an election at the federal level. Furthermore, candidates need to consider all the states and their counties, not just the most populous cities.
But going back to what I considered amazing… The concept of time they held. They valued ideas and brought them forward from a thousand years before, and thought about the future in the context of hundreds and thousands of years hence. They were far from perfect, but they sought to build a country and a system that could not just last, but evolve with its people. These were extraordinary men with diverse talents, that together figured this thing out called United States of America.
There have been many points of divisiveness in our country, and racial prejudices and the stain of slavery were the most significant. We fought a civil war over this, and frankly it still echoes in our culture and our institutions and has been called upon, as of late, to encourage and stoke divisiveness again.
We must think about what connects us, not what divides us, we must as our founders did, think about what our nation will be in the long-run, it is each generation’s responsibility to think and act on the future, not the next four years, but the next hundred years. This requires vision, this requires, the ability to see into the deep past and understand, and to see into the far future and anticipate.
We the People, need to think about whom we turn to, who and how we educate, and how to ensure social and civil happiness, meaning prosperity. For as our founders understood, it was the Pursuit of Happiness which gave reason for the precious protection of Life and Liberty.
