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John Adams famously said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” I think Mr. Adams may have been at least partially mistaken about this. I view Mr. Adams as one of the great minds of his era, so I hesitate to disagree with him on something about which he gave a great deal of thought. But hear me out, and see if you think that I might have a point.
Over the last few decades, I’ve watched the left move further and further left. The “do whatever feels good” hippies of the 1970s went through an anti-establishment phase, but they eventually grew up and got jobs and families and minivans. But today’s leftists are anti-American radicals who seek to “fundamentally transform” America via the complete destruction of the ideas, traditions, and ethics that made America the greatest country the world has ever seen.
As the radical left has gone from being a fringe movement to being one of our two political parties, America has become home to two groups of people, both of whom absolutely refuse to live by the policies and ideas of the other. So elections are no longer opportunities to sort out disagreements about highway funding, Post Office subsidies, or other mundane matters. Now, every election is a final battle to save democracy from Republicans, or to save the planet from capitalists, or save the children from some other cataclysmic event. I’m not sure that democracy works in this environment.
Only if we essentially agree on basic principles are we able to work out our differences on lesser matters via debates, elections, and free speech. If you openly hate your political adversaries and view them as fundamentally evil, then why would you negotiate with such scum? The only solution, in that circumstance, is complete destruction of your adversary, through any means necessary.
The tactics of the left, from the violence of Black Lives Matter, to the partisan attacks of the Justice system under Biden, to election fraud, to importing a new Democrat voting base via open borders, and so on – those tactics may seem distasteful to Americans who value our Constitution as John Adams did. But to a modern Democrat, those tactics are perfectly reasonable. What would you not do, in the battle against pure evil?
Which has led me to wonder whether a Constitutional republic can work in modern America. How could it possibly work, if half the population views that Constitution as somewhere between illegitimate and evil?
My version of Mr. Adams’ quote might read something like, “Our Constitution was made only for a group of people who pretty much agree on most things. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
I like his quote better. But I think my version may be more applicable to modern America.
Heaven help us.
Discussion (29)
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I think Adams has it exactly right. We live in a country divided between those led by people who believe human beings have souls and there is a Supreme Being and those on the Left led by people who do not believe there is a Supreme Being or objective morality. Our Constitution works for those who believe in God and fails for those who are non-believers in God and morality.
Have you not observed that our Leftist leaders don't reference the Constitution except under duress or when it just happens to conveniently support their current cause?
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I’m a one-trick-pony on this but when the Left’s raison d’etre is abortion, one can’t work out differences; there is no “common ground”. They absolutely disavow the belief that one of our unalienable rights is the right to life.
Well, this is very simplistic of me, but Mr. Adams would see that half of the citizenry as amoral and non-religious and would therefor agree that it can’t work with people like that. Mr. Adams is not mistaken, it is just that a great number of the citizenry have revolted against reason - they’ve lost their minds.
Amen.
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The left/progressives can't or won't distinguish between want and a need. After all, if you want if badly enough, it becomes a need because if you don't get it, your mental health will be impaired. A "need" is only a half-step away from being a positive right for which successful people are obligated to pay through confiscatory taxes.
Remember, if things truly can't go on this way, they won't.
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But of course, just because something can't go on forever doesn't mean it can't go on for decades, or even centuries.
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Inflation is not in the Constitution. There is no equal benefit from it. They don't really equalize it for it. Then people whine about the debt to GDP. Now, literally, the fractional reserve banking system is falling apart.
Inflation is stealing. We may need to do this, but they don't make the whole system work. Now it's going to fall apart. Do you think people are going to vote Republican or Democrat after that?
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