The media and pundits treat politics like a sport. The
significance of the recent agreement to postpone the debt crisis until January,
for instance, is really about which party won and which lost, which party’s
tactics are liable to be more successful in the next election, and which
politician is a winner and which a loser. But politics rightly understood is
not about the contest of policies or politicians. It’s about the philosophical
principles and ideas that create one policy rather than another—that’s what it
should be about, at least.
From that
point of view, the conflict between Democrats and Republicans concerns the size
and role of the federal government, which is no surprise to anyone who even
casually follows politics. But more important are the ideas that ground
arguments for or against limited government. These ideas include our notions of
human nature, and what motivates citizens when they make political decisions.…….during
the Constitutional convention……the basis of the Constitution was the view that
human nature is flawed…..men are “ambitious, vindictive and rapacious,” and are
motivated by what James Madison called “passions and interests.”…….Hence the
people “are daily misled into the most baneful measures and opinions by the
false reports circulated by designing men,” as Elbridge Gerry said during the
Constitutional convention debates…..To Read More….
No comments:
Post a Comment