Civic Virtue - a rare commodity on the right

Republicans strutted and fumed against the health care bill, as is the right of the loyal opposition. Some of the time the objections were based on economic concerns. Others invoked the simplistic, misleading notion of a government takeover.

But inevitably the founders were invoked: how the founders would object, how the bill and the Democrats were not being true to the founders. Fair enough. We should call on the authority of those who set us on our course.

Then our elected representatives of the right turned ugly. Over the line with calls for revenge and worse, and our Reps whipped the hapless media and the public into a frenzy. The rhetoric was just plain nasty, not statesmanlike. So maybe it's time to invoke those founders again.

Maybe those who turned to just plain cussedness forgot one of the most important, essential ideas of our founding fathers. They were realists, and knew that faction and the passions of the people were unavoidable. So instead of a direct democracy they designed a system of representative government. The principle is simple: the passions of the people would be channeled through their cool-headed, virtuous representatives.

Instead, our hyperbolic Republicans warned against tyranny, socialism, Armageddon, baby killers, and called President Obama a liar on national TV. Lots of shrill, mean-spirited language invoking violence that was echoed in many angry, ugly demonstrations. The nasty negative words and attitude may not be unprecendented, but it is rare and inconsistent with the framer's design.

Read it for yourself. Federalist #10, James Madison. No better authority, the Father of the Constitution. But the Republicans apparently missed that lesson. Instead they incite the passions of the electorate, a nasty turnabout on Madison and certainly not the "manly virtue" he, Hamilton, Franklin and Washington expected.

It may be desperation, or a sign that our political class has lost its way. But the founders of our beloved nation expected our representatives to cool the passions of the people, not inflame them, and govern with the best interest of the country foremost in mind. That is definitely not what we have seen in our Republican lawmakers in the recent past. Before they invoke the founders they at least ought to recognize the essential role of statesmanship and civic virtue in effective governing.