As one commentator put it, “Once you compare then and now, you’ve got to believe that Darwin got it exactly backward.” There seems to be an unspoken but widely shared assumption that the most prominent members of the founding generation represent the gold standard in political leadership, and our contemporary politicians are the epitome of debased currency. It doesn’t mean military, but it means some form of service.When I appear at book festivals or give readings, lots of folks want to know what the Founding Fathers would do or say about our currently dysfunctional Congress. But every American woman and man should serve the public for two years. I would favor mandatory national service. Is there any way to recover that sense of virtue? In their best moments, the Founders put the public good ahead of the whims of public opinion. When the coastal areas have to be evacuated, when the real implications of climate change begin to hit, we’re going to be forced to come together. That alienates all the evangelicals.Ī great crisis that leaves us no choice but to come together. That alienated whites in the Confederacy. The second thing was the civil rights movement. The Vietnam War, which undermined the credibility of the government for a whole generation of Americans. By the mid-1970s, that number had dropped to around 20%, and it’s never completely recovered. In the early 1960s, nearly 80% of Americans said they trusted their government. So the originalists who want us to go back to the original meaning have it dead wrong. The Founders would want us to recognize that it’s a living Constitution. Whenever race enters the question, the Founders are going to end up disappointing you.Ĭan the constitutional system they created solve our problems? They weren’t talking about women, and they weren’t talking about Native Americans. When the Founders talked about “we the people,” they were not talking about black people. What is the biggest failing of the Founders that still haunts us today? The single most important difference is that we are attempting to do something that nobody has ever done before: create a fully and genuinely multiracial society in a huge nation. There’s a difference between 4 million people gathered on the Atlantic Coast and 325 million people across the nation. Are we that different now compared with in Jefferson’s time?
They created a Constitution, which was designed to deal with imperfect human beings.Īmerica has always had people who vehemently disagree. The Founders didn’t believe in the better angels.
My view of history is that trusting in the better angels of our nature is a bad bet. Will the “better angels of our nature” save us?
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