With a population of some three million, colonial America produced more Statesmen than modern America can produce with her 300 million. How can that be, when we have the advantage of public education?
America still produces brilliant and ambitious men. But none of them yearn to be part of our Government, as they did in our Revolutionary days. Those were days of ferment when great things were being accomplished in government, namely the enshrinement of man's inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and the establishment of a Republic - a nation of laws, and not of men.
What is government doing today? The long train of abuses and usurpations one could list would put those of King George III to shame. Nobody with any honor or self-respect would agree to be part of such a government, except with the express purpose of annihilating the work of the last century of misgovernment.
There are no such Statesmen today, anywhere upon the landscape.
1 comment:
Ah, I figured out the problem with my leaving comments: it was my cookies.
Excellent post regarding American statesmen. The caliber of those who DO desire to enter politics is less than impressive (although, you have to admit, the degree of corruption and duplicity displayed by many of them does indicate extreme intelligence, if not wisdom - that is to say, their deviousness and ability to obfuscate and sometimes delude themselves, is "impressive").
Another problem with getting into politics is that it requires a lot of money. I flatter myself to say that I would be one of the good kind of statesmen you mention, one who would strive to tear down all of the corruption and bureaucracy that has been built up over the last 200 years, but without a lot of money, it will never happen.
It makes me wonder if a "recovery" of our government can ever be effected by legitimate, non-violent means, or if it's so far gone the only way to fix it is to tear it down and begin again, just as the Founding Fathers had to do. I don't think it's too far gone yet, but our people have a long way to go before they can recognize, in explicit terms, not only the nature and cause of the problems, but their solution.
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