invocations

[Paul Mackin]

On Thu, 14 Jan 1999, Daniel Wolf wrote:

> <In the political and legal debate on
> <impeachment, Americans constantly invoke the country’s founders, citing
> <18th-century writings to support modern views. Whenever they fret about
> their
> <country, somebody appears to tell them that things were better in a past
> era,
> <real or (usually) imagined.
> 
> More specifically, it will be the thirteen white, male, probably
> land-holding, Republican Congressmen acting as 'managers' of the Senate
> trial who will most often invoke the country's white, male, land-holding
> founders. Many of them implicitly advocate a kind of conservatism that
> would presumably be most comfortable if the franchise to participate in the
> nation's affairs were once again limited to such a polity. 
> 

But what's more interesting and significant to understanding what is going
on is that the white, male, land-holding (though not typically very
wealthy) Founding Fathers would be appalled by the House 13. The FFs being
men of the Enlightenment would have had little sympathy for the backwater
cultural position the House 13 stands for. Moreover, to Jefferson and
Madison the show the 13 are putting on would have looked like democratic
rabble-rousing at its worst.

Though, in the American culture wars, the House 13 represents a portion of
our people and is therefore undeniable a part of our democracy,
fortunately it is an increasingly minor portion.

In case anyone hasn't noticed the dominant economic forces are not
mainly on the side of the House 13.

			P.