The founding is still America’s political North Star
Looking at our dysfunctional political landscape today, especially in Washington, I’m increasingly convinced that the American Founding has most of the answers to what ails us. I don’t mean that the time period was better or that evil didn’t exist in early America, but rather that our Constitution is an extraordinary achievement, given that its design and structure are meant to restrain power. And at this hour, I’m thinking of the recent comments by Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin implying weaponizing the justice department to go after people serving in the Trump administration. Plus, she claimed she wants to scare young people from serving under Trump, using prosecutions as a “deterrent.” Whatever her intent, it certainly felt like a shot across the bow of political freedom and the freedom of association.
“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse,” declared James Madison.
Of course, there are plenty of candidates on both sides of the aisle whom I do not trust with power. Adding to that, Congress’s track record on restraining spending, reforming entitlements, and overseeing federal programs is pretty horrific. Members of Congress can navigate political controversies and win reelection (the vast majority do), but they don’t have the courage to take on the much-needed reforms that would put the interests of our republic above their own careers and self-interests.
The main point is that the American Founders understood human nature much better than many of our contemporary political leaders understand or care about constitutional government today. We really need to remember that. And given that we have an election coming up, it’s another great reminder that merely being able to elect leaders or engage in democratic exercises is no guarantee of liberty. After all, we still need leaders who are willing to lead on tough issues and not merely exercise the popular will. Democracy is not sacred merely because we are free to elect people. What if most of those people are quite problematic or even evil?
That’s why the Founders gave us so much more than elections and why I believe that Calvin Coolidge’s address on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is one of the most brilliant speeches in the 20th century. Coolidge reminded Americans that abandoning the fundamental principles of our founding is not progress but a return to the past. As he put it, those who reject these principles “are reactionary” and “not more modern, but more ancient.”
They gave us a constitutional system designed to divide power, restrain ambition, and protect liberty regardless of who holds office. Elections may change the figures we allow to exercise power over us, but they do not change human nature.
When I look around at the news or doom-scroll on social media, nearly everything in our politics today should reorient us toward first principles. As I’ve pointed out before, that exact idea appears in many of our state constitutions and traces back to George Mason and Virginia’s Declaration of Rights.
There may be no better advice for our political landscape today than “a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat