Given that history, the level of panic on the left about a potential Trump presidency seems surprising. There were bad leaders - here’s looking at you, Hoover - but no strong man ever took over Washington. The founding fathers’ system worked, but not in the way they suspected it would (well, maybe in the way Franklin thought it would).
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Yes, factions cropped up early, but the safeguards baked into the Constitution - like requiring two-thirds majority from the House and Senate to amend it - meant permanent changes to the government at the behest of the majority were almost impossible. Thankfully democracy - in the sense that we know it now - was introduced slowly (much too slowly for most) into our system of government. Senators were appointed by their state’s governors or elected by state legislature rather than popular vote, and the President was chosen by specially appointed electors (hence the electoral college).
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The original system of voting elites speaks to that: in most states, only landowners could vote for House Representatives. They were men who felt that the country’s best chances of success lay in the hands of informed, moral, and public-minded white men who could form a permanent political class. The writers of the Constitution were not populists - even for their time. They created a system designed to be contentious and inefficient in order to make sure that both politicians and citizens could never be too legislatively efficient. The framers understood that reserving powers was the only way to make sure the representative of the people acted in their best interest. A country defined by its factions and governed by a majority interest, they figured, would likely succumb to tyranny. And once mobs start competing, you get factions, and if there was anything that scared the founding fathers more than democracy, it was factionalism. The Preacher's Wordįor statesmen like Madison, Jefferson, Adams, and Hamilton, democracy was a fancy word for mob rule. The equal branches of the federal government were created to be what Madison described as a “necessary fence” between America and true democracy. The instructions they came up with were equally optimistic (the pursuit of happiness!) and cynical.
#WASHINGTON SAW SERIES#
The bewigged colonials in Philadelphia didn’t just debate mechanism of governance, they attempted to preemptively cure social and political ills, which meant thinking critically about the technologies and social norms driving the economic and physical expansion of what had been a series of Atlantic outposts. To whatever degree America was founded on Judeo-Christian morality, it was founded more on guesswork. But James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington were still such astonishing political futurists that, two and a half centuries later, it’s still worth looking backwards when attempting to figure out what might happen next. Did they predict Donald Trump’s campaign? Not as specifically as Hillary Clinton might wish us to believe.
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They feared that the voting public, left to its own devices, would elect demagogues and liars instead of wonks and leaders. In fact, most of the founding fathers - well, the Federalists anyway - weren’t so hot on direct democracy. This is unlike Stanford, which got beat up by the Huskies and lost to them 20-13 two weeks ago and then got pounded by Utah 52-7 as a result of its short-handedness.In 2016, we tend to use the terms “democracy” and “republic” interchangeably, but back in the 1780s there was a definitive line drawn between the two. Yet Huff's primary focus is on Arizona State, which he said presents an NFL-style defense with plenty of depth up front. That he just may have to sell his house and seek another job somewhere far across the country. That his backyard barbecues with the Husky big guys will also come to a close. That his relationships with these players he's spent up to six years coaching will end. While Huff was jovial enough, it's got to be in the back of the assistant coach's mind and everyone else's that his job likely is coming to an end if Lake is ousted as expected.
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Sophomore Matteo Mele has forced fellow sophomore Vic Curne to share the tackle spot. Sophomore Ulumoo Ale, injured to begin the season, has reclaimed the guard spot for the past four games after sitting out in favor of redshirt freshman Julius Buelow. DeBoer Says He's All About 'Attacking and Explosion' as Offensive Coach