Since I already have something in mind to post tomorrow, today I thought it would be appropriate to juxtapose a comment to the frantic exhortations of the last days prior to the election. "There is no party that is suited to govern except- US." "There are all the incipient disasters you can think of in voting for anybody except- US." "Grass will grow in the streets of thousands of cities and towns in the United States* unless you vote for- US." And so forth.
The truth, for my money:
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.
-Lord Acton, Letter to Mary Gladstone, 1881
The Constitution of the United States was designed -and by very intelligent men- to accomplish several goals, among them that of denying to any party, group, sect or interest the ability to seize power in this country. So far, it works......so what's the concern? Why not just stay home?
Perhaps it lies simply in the decision to vote, to assume that particular responsibility. Self-government means just that. It means to take responsibility for one's own affairs, to do one's own business.
Perhaps it lies in the fact that constitutions are not the last word. Ultimately, people have the last word. No one destroyed the Roman Empire. As far as anyone can tell, basically people just got tired of it and.....walked away. In our own time, perhaps the most trenchant comment on this view was made by Judge Learned Hand:
“I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there no constitution, no law, no court can save it.”
*Warning of what would happen if FDR was elected in 1932.
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