"Mission: Preserve the Republic"

 Over the weekend we saw the movie Reagan, with Dennis Quaid playing the title role. It brought back waves of nostalgia for a time and a President so different from what we have and what we are offered. But pining for yesteryear does no one any good. As the saying goes, we must play with the cards we are dealt. Nevertheless, the movie – the first for me in a theater in over five years – is worth seeing. 

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Mission: Preserve the Republic”

September 23, 2024

 

Elizabeth Willing Powel: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

Benjamin Franklin: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

                                                                                                      Philadelphia, September 17, 1787

 

That exchange took place 237 years ago outside Independence Hall, where delegates had met to discuss weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, as they pertained to the central government. It was recorded in the journal of Maryland delegate James McHenry (1753-1816), a journal now in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. (The Articles of Confederation, agreed to in 1777, were replaced a decade later by the United States Constitution, which provided for a stronger central government.)

 

Democrats have seized the expression “save democracy,” which means elect them, not Republicans who they argue would destroy democracy. They express concern of storm troopers led by Donald Trump who they say would tear down our democratic institutions. But might this be an example of projection?

 

Our Founders were concerned about despotism, including what James Madison called “the tyranny of the majority.” So they constructed a Republic, with checks and balances, a federal government with three equal and independent branches – legislative, executive and judicial – to protect the rights of both the majority and the minority. 

 

In a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, George Washington University law professor Jonathon Turley wrote: “In an October 2020 interview, Harvard law professor Michael Klarman laid out a plan for Democrats should they win the White House and both congressional chambers. They would enact ‘democracy-entrenching legislation.’ But what does that mean? They have called for the elimination of the Electoral College. They want to increase the size of the Supreme Court, and widen the reach of the federal bureaucracy through new administrative agencies. They would give Congress the ability to impose term limits on Supreme Court Justices and have the Court abide by a code of ethics prepared by Congress. Their plans would emasculate the concept of federalism and require amending the Constitution.  

 

On the Republican side, the Heritage Foundation published a 920-page document, reflecting their vision for a second Trump administration, Project 2025. A copy of the plan was brought to the Democrat convention in Chicago where it was presented as a blueprint as to what they claimed Republicans would do: transform the FBI, abolish the Department of Education, dismantle NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association), terminate the legal status of 500,000 “Dreamers,” and curtail women’s rights. Unmentioned was the fact that the Heritage Foundation has, every four years, released a “Mandate for Leadership” since the early 1980s, or the fact that Mr. Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025.

 

None of this is to belittle risks to our government, which is unique in the annals of mankind. Fifty-seven years ago, at his inaugural as California’s Governor, Ronald Reagan stated: “Freedom is a fragile thing, and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.” Yet threats continue. Sixteen years ago, speaking to a crowd in Columbus, Missouri, Barack Obama proclaimed: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” What did he mean? And now we have the unelected wife of an elected President running a cabinet meeting. Where was his Vice President? Shades of Edith Wilson?

 

Fundamental to our system of government, whether you choose to call it a democracy or a republic, is freedom of expression, with the obvious exceptions of – without cause – yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater, or declaiming in front of the Supreme Court, as did New York’s senior U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer: “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” In a nation of 330 million people such threats can have unintended consequences, as assassination attempts on Mr. Trump have demonstrated. On the other hand, censorship, whether practiced by the government, as in the Russian collusion story in 2015-2019, or by the media, as in the Hunter Biden laptop story of 2020, is detrimental to inherent freedoms, and thus to the preservation of our democratic republic.

 

The Founders decided on a bicameral legislature so that smaller states would have equal representation in the U.S. Senate, to offset the House of Representatives, which is based on population. The Electoral College, which elects the President, is a combination of the two, being allocated votes equal to its number of Senators and its number of Congressional districts. Keep in mind, in 1787 this reflected magnanimity on the part of Virginia, which was the largest state in the union and home to principal authors of our founding documents – the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and The Federalist Papers. As well, Virginia was home to four of the first five Presidents. If Washington, Jefferson, Madison or Monroe had preferred a pure democracy they could have railroaded one through. 

 

Our form of government has survived a British invasion in 1812-1814 and a Civil War. It has survived the scourge of slavery, years of Jim Crow and reconstruction, a debilitating depression, segregation, and the anti-war protests of the 1960s. It has survived the assassinations of four U.S. Presidents. It went to the aid of Europe in 1917. It saved the world from Nazism and Imperial Japan in the 1940s. It has produced more Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winners than any other nation. Its economy and freedom have been a beacon for the world’s oppressed, drawn by opportunities the Country offers. At its heart are personal, political and economic freedoms. It is a nation that adheres to the lesson of the old Chinese proverb – “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.”

 

Yes, our mission should be to preserve the Republic gifted us. I am not happy in the choices we have for President in 2024. Neither political party seems concerned with our massive debt, which can (and will) destroy our way of life, especially as we face demographic challenges unknown to our forefathers. And I am not happy that both Parties focus on what they can do for us, rather than emphasizing the opportunities free markets offer to those talented, aspirational and diligent. I am not happy when diversity is reserved solely for color, race, sex, or creed, and when it excludes abilities, opinions, and interests.

 

As we head to the polls, we should consider: Which political party is more likely to shrink regulations, limit spending, and stop the dangerous silliness of letting boys compete against girls in school sports? Which party is more likely to give the aspirational opportunity to succeed in the fields of their choice? Neither candidate is one I would choose. Harris is vacuous, either by design or by nature. And I wonder: Who is the “Oz” behind the curtain guiding Mr. Biden, and is there a “Toto” to pull back the drapes? The bombastic Mr. Trump is personally unappealing, but at least we have his four-year record as President, in which he – even though the Country was hit by Covid – performed well. And with mainstream media lined up against him there is little chance of his becoming authoritarian. Preserving our Republic should be our priority.

Thought of the Day - "Bari Weiss and The Fight for the West"

 Sixty years ago tomorrow President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Most of us remember where we were. I was in a college classroom, when I saw the American flag being lowered to half-mast. It seemed impossible that a young, attractive, vibrant President could be dead. Four of our Presidents have been assassinated, the first three within a traumatic thirty-six-year period: Lincoln in 1865, Garfield in 1881, and McKinley in 1901. 

 

On a cheerier note, we are two days from celebrating Thanksgiving, that special American holiday when the Pilgrims gave thanks to God for having survived their first winter and for the bounty of their harvest. We, too, owe thanks to God for the bounty that is ours, but more important to all those who came before that we might live freely in this exceptional nation.

 

I hope you are able to spend it with family and friends, for they are the glue that secures our civilization. Caroline and I will be at our daughter’s with her family, and with our younger son and his family – twelve in all.

 

Happy Thanksgiving! Sydney

 

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Bari Weiss and The Fight for the West”

November 21, 2023

 

“There is no place like this country. And there is no second America to run to if this one fails.”

                                                                                Bari Weiss (1984-)

                                                                                Speech, Federalist Society’s Barbara K. Olson’s Memorial Lecture

                                                                                November 13, 2023

 

Civilizations may be compared, but they are not comparable. Freedom, equal rights, rule of law, living standards, property rights vary considerably among cultures. None is perfect, as man is not perfect. But the West, as defined as Australasia, Europe, and North America[1], has provided the fairest system and the best opportunities for the aspirant, which is why so many have chosen to immigrate to those nations. The West traces its origins to classical Greece and ancient Rome. Judaism is often cited as the first monotheistic religion.[2] And Christianity was birthed in the eastern Mediterranean basin. Over a 2,300-year period, Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, Montaigne, and others gave voice to the West’s culture. It was enhanced by the Enlightenment (1585-1815), with individuals like Shakespeare, Locke, Adam Smith, Rousseau and founding fathers of the United States: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. Novelists like Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, and scientists like Charles Darwin and Marie Curie added to its stature, as did artists like Michelangelo, Titian, and Rembrandt; and composers like Mozart and Beethoven. 

 

The West is not just a physical place. It was (and is) an idea – here in the United States it was (and is) an experiment in self-government, embedded in a melting pot of free people. Today, we who live in the West are beneficiaries of three thousand years of Western culture. We are fortunate to live in countries with the greatest individual freedom and the highest standards of living. We thank those who came before us, who fought and persevered for our liberties. Yet it has become popular, in recent times, to denigrate the West, to focus on its weaknesses, mistakes, and limitations, and not on its strengths and its slow move toward equality, justice, and fairness – to sublimate the individual to the group with which he or she identifies.

 

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Bari Weiss defends the West. She is remarkable – a journalist, writer, and editor, who describes herself as a “liberal uncomfortable with the excesses of left-wing culture...a left-leaning centrist.” However, Vanity Affairdescribed her as a provocateur and other publications claim she is a conservative. From my perspective, she is commonsensical.

 

She is the founder of The Free Press and hosts the podcast Honestly. She is young, a 2007 graduate of Columbia University, first hired as a Bartley Fellow that same year by The Wall Street Journal. The next year she became a Dorot Fellow in Jerusalem. She worked at The Wall Street Journal until 2017 when she was hired by The New York Times. In 2020 she penned a public resignation letter to the publisher, Mr. A.G. Sulzberger. She wrote of a new consensus having emerged in the press, “…especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.”

 

But it is her November 13 speech at the Federalist Society’s Barbara K. Olson’s Memorial Lecture that demands focus. Her subject was the fight for the West: “You Are the Last Line of Defense.”[3] The speech should be read in its entirety, but it is worth reviewing. She spoke of the “civilization war we are in” – including an ongoing war against Islamic terrorism. Barbara Olson, on American Airlines flight 77 that slammed into the Pentagon, was murdered by al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001. Twenty-two years later, on the morning of Shabbat, Hamas terrorists, in “a scene from the history of the Nazi Holocaust,” raped, mutilated, and butchered 1,200 Israelis. She drew attention to differences in reaction to the two events. Twenty-two years ago the world was horrified. On October 8, people took to the streets. They “rejoiced on the streets of Berlin and London and Toronto and New York.” “The social justice crowd,” she said, “– the crowd who has tried to convince us that words are violence – insisted that actual violence was actually a necessity.” She spoke of university presidents who, lucidly (and correctly) condemned George Floyd’s killing, now “offered silence or mealy-mouthed pablum about how the situation is tragic and ‘complex.’” 

 

She spoke of how antisemitism has moved “from the shameful fringe into the public square.” But, as she noted, it is not just about Jews: “It is an early warning system that society itself is breaking down.” She argued that we have lost the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil and that we have replaced ideas with identity, debate with denunciation, and “the rule of law with the fury of the mob.” She spoke of how this inverted worldview swallowed “all the crucial sense-making institutions of American life:” universities, media, cultural institutions, major corporations, high schools and elementary schools. It is a world view that “measures fairness by equality of outcome rather than opportunity.” Merit, hard work, aspiration, talent take a back seat to “unearned privilege.” In Gaza today, Israel and the Jews are “powerful and successful…, so they are bad; Hamas is weak and coded as people of color, so they are good.”

 

“So,” she asks, “what do we do?” Her answer: First, “we must recover our ability to look and discern.” We must distinguish between good and bad, between just and unjust. We must remember that it is “human beings – not cultures – [that] are created equal.” Second, the law must be enforced: “Everyone needs equal protection, not only of the law, but from forces of chaos and violence.” Third, double standards regarding free speech, especially at universities, must be eliminated. For too long, they have played favorites “based on the speech they prefer, and the racial group hierarchies they’ve established.” And fourth, she said you must “accept that you are the last line of defense and fight, fight, fight.” It is, she added, “time to defend our values – the values that have made this country the freest, most tolerant society in the history of the world – without hesitation or apology.

 

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Our democratic system is fragile. It is one that has, historically, welcomed criticism. However, there are those who, in the pursuit of personal power, would destroy what time, “blood, sweat, and tears,” and ideals have created. President Reagan used to warn that democracy was always one generation away from failing. On September 17, 1787, in response to a question by Elizabeth Willing Powel as to what the Constitutional Convention had created, the 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin, replied: “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Our system of government, born in the Age of Enlightenment, is a political manifestation of Western civilization and its values. Threats to it by those ignorant of history are real, especially when those threats come draped in the language of social justice. We must respond affirmatively to Franklin’s assertion. Bari Weiss is doing her part to keep alive the ethics and standards that the West gifted us. We must do our part.  

 

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[1] In defining the West, some include western Russia, along with Central and South America. 

[2] Others claim the first monotheistic religion was Zoroastrianism in Persia.

[3] Her speech: https://www.thefp.com/p/you-are-the-last-line-of-defense