Happy Thanksgiving!

The discussions around family Thanksgiving Dinners across our country will I am sure be vigorous and I hope fun. I hope that in my family all will be courteous and not contentious—but I doubt that can happen. Sometimes contentious debate can be great fun. We will be having Thanksgiving dinner in Seattle with my son and his family and his in laws. At each dinner plate will be two Thanksgiving messages. One written by Vermont Royster the former editor of The Wall Street Journal, entitled THE DESOLATE WILDERNESS. It has appeared in The Journal every year since 1961:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-desolate-wilderness-11606261596

A second article also will be appearing in the Journal entitled AND THE FAIR LAND. This is a more contemporary look at America. These two articles form bookends and context for the great American Experiment that we are all part of:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/and-the-fair-land-11606261471

We all get so involved in the nuts and bolts of political campaigns that we forget the context of the why our passions are so intertwined with our politics. Part of the problem I believe stems from our understanding of the word “Politics”. The word “Politics” stems from the work of Aristotle. At the end of his NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS written in the 4^th century BC he declares than any inquiry into ethics necessarily leads into a discussion of “politics”. Aristotle believed the politics dealt with the philosophy of human affairs. A more modern definition is that it is the “science”—is politics the “Queen” of soft sciences or sociology”(?), of the process of governing of a political entity—a body politic, a legislature, a city council—anybody that asserts a control over our individual sovereignty or “external or internal affairs”—jml

In all of his writings and in fact in most of the writings from the Classical Period up through the Enlightenment, philosophers always dealt with the process of government and governance. Not with campaigns. But there have always been “campaigns”. As long as there are factions positioning themselves for a piece of power, there will always be campaigns. In the courts of Kings of The Old Testament, there was campaigning to see who could have the most influence over the king. Daniel had to be a politician in order to Court favor with King Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar, and the conqueror of The Calean Kings Darius The Mede. It is interesting by Daniel’s account, Darius did not conquer or steal his victories, rather Daniel uses the passive tense to describe how Darius effortlessly came to power—he was a politician. “Politics is the act before war”.

Campaigning is an American tradition. It is part public relations and part propaganda, By design it inflames passions in preference to reason. Think of the great pamphleteers of our Great Revolution like Thomas Paine, John Hancock, and Benjamin Franklin. Our Founding Fathers during both the Continental and Constitutional Conventions were acting in politics—reason and faith. They recognized like Aristotle—partially because almost all of them had read the Classics and The Bible, the process of politics. A political philosophy must have an ethical and moral predicate in order to function. They all were so well versed in the moral underpinnings of Western Thought—they all talked a common language—even though they might have differed on important ideas. They understood the difference between “Prudential” and “Providential” truths. Humanistic ideas from philosophers of their day like Voltaire and even Humes, were well understood, but a uniquely Americanized version of governance was created recognizing The Classic Philosophers—Plato Aristotle Socrates, The Stoics, and Judeo-Christian Church teachings and philosophers.

The words of John Locke placed into our Great Declaration by Thomas Jefferson reflect the confluence of Western Thinking from over 5000 years of thinking about politics. Athens, Jerusalem, Rome, Magna Carta, The Enlightenment in one sentence reflect the brilliance, understanding and humility in our founding:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

They understood what these words meant and just as importantly where they came from.

Today we are having a great debate about “the process of governance”. We for the first time in many years are looking at GOVERNANCE. This is precisely what the study of politics was originally supposed to be all about. The size of government at all levels needs to be examined very closely. This cuts both to the issues of the costs, of governance, but also to the proper function of government which our Founders thought they had defined and limited in our Founding Documents. Donald Trump recognizes the problem and is creating the Department of Government Efficiency to be co-headed by Elon Musk and Ravig Ramaswamy. Governor Little and the Republican leadership in Idaho need to make a similar move. Included in such a review should be as I have advocated on this site for over 7 years, should be an outside independent signed partner’s audit of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The issues wrecking our health care system are legion and ubiquitous. They need to be examined in detail, and not by a committee headed by the very people that caused the problems. The public health model that established “clinical standards of care” created out of thin air during the Covid non-pandemic need to be examined. An out brief of our Covid response needs to be forthcoming at both the State Government and Institutional levels. The State of Florida has already done this and streamlined their response systems. This was evident in the recent two hurricane disaster responses in that State. Without such self-reflection Idaho is poised to make the same mistakes over again. Relying on lobbyists, institutional operative, and government bureaucrats to make critical decisions is very different than listening to “experts” who in the case of Covid, were the doctors and nurses on the scene who were directly taking care of patients.

The Pilgrims, Our Founding Fathers, the generations of Americans who have fought through wars and famines and depressions for over 260 years understood that the strength of our country is in its’ people—not in its’ government. Donald Trump went directly to WE THE PEOPLE, because he knows that it is individual liberty and initiative that creates upward mobility and economic growth. It is work that gives value to people’s lives by allowing them the opportunity to take care of themselves and their families. It is people and families that are the strength of our country—not a legion of government bureaucrats. Reallocating the fruits of our labors—scarce resources, back into the hands of the people, is the formula for making America grow again. It has always been so.

It is time to get back to basics and back to our Founding Principles.

What better time than Thanksgiving? The time when we give Thanks for the blessings that were earned by the sweat of our parents and grandparents dating back to our Founding. Time to get back to basics. Time to get back to common principles. The “process of governance” should always be informed by those common principles.

Happy Thanksgiving!