Responsive Government? What’s That?
A bunch of threads are colliding against each other in my head right now. Reuters is reporting on a new poll that shows a majority of Americans want a timeline to withdraw troops from Iraq. In the meantime, there have been numerous reports about the Congressional Democrats’ problems coalescing behind any particular proposal to try and stop the war before Bush leaves office. (Here’s Dick Polman from the Inquirer on the subject, and right now the front page of MyDD.com has several competing perspectives on the subject.)
Meanwhile, I’m putting together review material for my American Philosophy students, and going over some of the Anti-Federalist writings that opposed the Constitution because they thought the new national government was too powerful and insufficiently responsive to the people – some thought that the checks and balances that we all learned about in grade school would just gum up the works and keep the government from doing what the public wanted. Which was precisely what folks like Madison and Hamilton had in mind, of course. And many times I think that’s a good thing. Right now, though, maybe not so much.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.