(PHILADELPHIA) Not just because I majored in politics in college, and took my graduate degrees in government & international relations afterwards, but I am an unabashed lover of my country's form of governance.
I remember actually choking-up when talking to one of my graduate-school mentors about the glories of America's unique form of democracy. And I felt the same way here in Philadelphia when walking around Independence Square. I was so moved at what had been wrought here, especially in Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were conceived, debated, and proudly unveiled.
And so saddened at the state of American government today in the hands of the Bush Administration.
We are so lucky to be the beneficiaries of the genius of our country's Founding Fathers -- men like Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams, Franklin, Paine and a host of others. Yes, of course, the American system of government was and is far from perfect, but it has the built-in political infrastructure for constant improvement. ("Democracy," said Churchill, "is the worst form of government ever invented. Except for all the others.")
FREEDOM -- "IF YOU CAN KEEP IT"
Franklin in essence challenged us all after the Constitution was written: We've given you this wonderful democratic-republic form of government -- "if you can keep it." That is our massive responsibility today.
Democracy is not just voting, it is also constantly struggling to protect and defend it against more authoritarian forces anxious to tear it down, including their willingness to upset the delicate separation-of-powers system our forefathers set up to keep any one branch or faction from amassing too much political control. The power-hungry Bush crew have worked as a wrecking company tearing down so many of America's legal and political traditions.
If we've learned anything during the past six years, it is that protecting democracy is a rough-and-tumble contact sport and you can't win if you cede the court to the other guys. You need to get in there and mix it up in defense of the greatness and potential greatness of this country.
THE DANGER OF A KING NAMED GEORGE
The colonists had been loyal subjects of the British Crown until the English king began aggressively mistreating his subjects in the New World. King George III was a tyrant -- who was, many believe, somewhat mentally unhinged -- and he exercised his power cruelly and excessively.
Eventually, the citizens in the thirteen colonies began to chafe at being taxed without representation, at the heavy-handed way the British troops barged into their homes and farms and manhandled (and in some cases imprisoned, beat and killed) them. Rebellion was in the air, but breaking free of a despotic ruler is not easy and definitely not for sissies.
The founders of our democratic republic knew that issuing their Declaration of Independence from Great Britain was an act of treason against the state that guaranteed them death-by-hanging if their enterprise failed. These were no sissies.
They signed the Declaration on July 4, 1776. It took them eight long years of warfare (much of it of a guerrilla nature) for the colonists to gain their independence. Following the American victory, the loose Articles of Confederation were barely holding the 13 states together. The United States were -- not yet "was" -- in jeopardy. A Constitution for an effective national government had to be constructed, from scratch, with all sorts of compromises between large states and small states, high-population states and low-population states, Federalists and Republicans, those states that sanctioned slavery and those that didn't.
Finally, in 1787 the new Constitution was completed. It dealt largely with the relations between the federal government and the various states, but hardly addressed the rights of the people. In large part, the colonists had fought their war for independence precisely because the British Crown would acknowledge no such rights and ran roughshod over the populace. And so, in order to strengthen the case for ratification of the Constitution by the various states, the Bill of Rights, comprising the first ten amendments to the Constitution, was promised and finally adopted in 1791.
THE BILL OF RIGHTS: PROTECTION FOR ALL
From that time, until six years ago, United States citizens lived under the glorious umbrella of Constitutional protections of their rights. That's more than 200 years. Certainly, there were occasional egregious violations of those rights: slavery being the most notable, along with the lack of women's suffrage and sanctioned racial discriminations. But, by and large, the system worked beautifully and effectively.
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked for two decades as a writer-editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org).
