And the Sesame Street Letter of the Day is?

To prepare a rebuttal on another blog I began re-reading parts of the Federalist Papers created by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay under the pen name Publius. While in the midst of doing so I had an interesting thought. It was not the content of the Federalist Papers that gave me the thought; it was its purpose. The Federalist Papers were written to inform people in early America about the content of the Constitution created in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Each Essay of the entire work was printed in newspapers at the time. They were also printed in entirety later and distributed to ordinary citizens. At the time there were other opinions about how government should be organized. Anti-federalists and others disagreed with the implementation of the constitution. Other writers created works refuting the constitution and the some of the Federalist Papers’ essays were designed to refute some of these other writers. All of this was done to argue multiple sides of complex issues within the view of mainstream America. The constitutional convention was held in 1787 Yet the constitution as we know it in its original form (with the bill of rights added) was not assembled until 1791. It took four years of debate and discussion to fully adopt the constitution in its full form.

What happened to that concept? Our current form of political debate in America is whether you cheer for the Democrats or the Republicans as they ridicule each other in the coliseum and decide what role government should play in your life while pundits give their play by play commentary. Is that really the best we can do? Is this really the America that our founders fought to create? I recently read an article by Gene Healy of the Cato Institute where he talks about the current attitude of politicians in America (http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10700). He highlights how several senators and congressmen laughed when asked if they have read some of the bills that are being proposed in congress right now. Healy also says “In February 2003, the New York Times reported that both parties had hired lawyers to run seminars for congressmen, explaining the requirements of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law they had just passed”. That’s interesting considering that most of our politicians ARE lawyers.

It’s a two part problem:

1. The National government is becoming a ridiculous entity that doesn’t even know what it is doing anymore. They don’t even know what their own legislation means. How can they intelligently tell me that what they are doing is good for me. They can’t. This problem can be fixed easily by imposing term limits to prevent career politicians from becoming the political class, but the second fix is actually the second part of the problem.

2. YOU and I are also the problem. We allow politicians to pigeon hole our opinions, beliefs, views, and thoughts into two categories. Think about who this really helps. Does it help you or politicians? You and I both have to question boldly and debate with each other. Next time someone asserts something that you disagree with, set down your cell phone for a few minutes and talk with him or her. Don’t let it become a shouting match. Don’t just dismiss them as a ridiculous liberal or an oppressive conservative, but consider what the other person is saying and agree or disagree while supporting your opinion. If we are all vocal about what we really believe in and discuss these ideas openly and even vigorously debate them without resorting to arguing the Sesame Street letter of the day (D or R) politics will have to change. If politicians cannot convince you to vote for a letter, believe me they will try something else. Don’t let Washington convince you that these matters are too complex for you to understand, or that they will take care of you, or that they know better. We are not on the D team or the R team we are on the team of the people and they are on the team of the government. They are asking for YOUR vote not the other way around. Make them work for it.

At the end of the constitutional convention of 1787 Ben Franklin was asked “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”, to which Franklin Replied “A Republic, if you can keep it.”