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(Source: uvamagazine.org) |
The Founding Fathers play a critically important, sometimes
even bizarre role in modern America. “We want to
know what Thomas Jefferson would think of affirmative action,” Gordon Wood
writes in his superb
Revolutionary Characters, “or George Washington of the invasion of Iraq.”
In many ways this obsession with seeking the blessings of our founders
is unique. We don’t worry, for example,
if Henry Ford would endorse our newest manufacturing processes, what Babe Ruth thinks
of the designated hitter rule or if Louis Armstrong cares for rap. Likewise, the French don’t wonder what
Charlemagne would say about their current immigration policy just as the British,
Wood points out, feel no need to check in periodically with either of
the two William Pitts.
WWTJD? Exactly.
So, it’s interesting to reflect on the fact that the Founding Fathers’
greatest accomplishment—beyond their individual achievements with electricity, writing declarations, and winning wars—was constructing their grand experiment in
self-government: Republic 1.0. As
political entrepreneurs, Washington and company launched a radical innovation
in the global market, ran it for a while, and then handed it over to the next
generation of management.
What did they think of the nation they had created? Were they pleased? Did Republic 1.0 measure up to their
expectations? Did each die content in
his achievement, or, like Victor Frankenstein, aghast at the unintended
consequences of the monster they had fashioned?