tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post8897103009980255234..comments2023-12-28T06:30:48.808-05:00Comments on The Rule of Reason: Madison vs. ObamaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-79841598902630611802013-03-27T20:04:46.177-04:002013-03-27T20:04:46.177-04:00The Revolution was based on radical Whig thought. ...The Revolution was based on radical Whig thought. However in 18th century Britain, such ideas were held by a small minority. In America, the same ideas were held by a majority of educated people. When the European Enlightenment collapse, there was no American thinker to save it. Until Ayn Rand, that is. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-8114426423082108362013-03-27T19:51:00.336-04:002013-03-27T19:51:00.336-04:00A British friend and correspondent sent me these r...A British friend and correspondent sent me these remarks about the column, but he's too shy to post them himself. So, here they are.<br /><br />I do not think you can really understand the glory that is/was America until you understand its British intellectual and political roots - Coke, Lilburne, Walwyn, Overton, Locke, Trenchard, etc..<br /><br />The funny thing about British colonies is that - as British colonies - they were already free. <br /><br />When Henry VIII finally stuffed the Papists one of greatest benefits to Britain was that this country - unlike France or Spain - had no canon law to morph into an administrative law, with its vast choking, regulatory bureaucracy.<br /><br />Hence, all the UK charters and contacts, a vast corpus of laws, letters patent, grants, etc. were written in a very British context - even the US colonial press [which played a huge US cultural/intellectual role] was full of British stories expounding British values - Addison's 'Cato,' for example, the most popular play during the War of Independence - is a thoroughly English play.<br /><br />The American contribution is unique because, as free colonies, the colonists were permitted, indeed expected, to make their own local laws, covenants and ordinances as they saw fit - and they use implicit and explicit British values to do so - even in the Declaration of Independence the archetypal US terminology "pursuit of happiness" "inalienable rights" etc., is of English origin [Locke].<br /><br />But it was American thought and blood that condensed and concentrated these ideas - severing the ties with the Crown which we had tried - and failed to do - 100 years earlier - cementing them into the very foundations of the US.<br /><br />The current US President may feel the founders' US Constitution is fundamentally "flawed" but I shudder to think what might have happened to the world had they failed.<br /><br />We would have been finished by 1840 like the rest of Europe. Edward Clinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12160209827969614964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-77027025939796253842013-03-27T15:18:37.296-04:002013-03-27T15:18:37.296-04:00BLNelson: Yes, you're right about Wilson, who...BLNelson: Yes, you're right about Wilson, who also approved of the renewal of the draft. I would've also mentioned the popular electionof the Senate, but wanted to keep the column short and punchy. Thanks for your input. Ed<br />Edward Clinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12160209827969614964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5200276.post-31138726522331019722013-03-27T14:31:18.517-04:002013-03-27T14:31:18.517-04:00I would add Woodrow Wilson to the list of horrible...I would add Woodrow Wilson to the list of horrible presidents - it was in his administration that the Senate became a popularly elected body, just like the House, by virtue of the 17th Amendment, leading to today - when both bodies certainly can be bribed.... Wilson also imposed on us the Income Tax. I agree that Obama eclipses all previous presidents no matter how bad, but only because step by step the protections put in place by the founders have either been obviated or decimated. BLNelsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10937014325336324779noreply@blogger.com