To: The People of the United States, September 6, 2022
235 Years Ago:
Ben was Right
By Mark Albertson
* * * *
This year marked the 235th anniversary of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, May 14 to September 17, 1787; though the debates centering round the impending Republic and not a Democracy, carried forth well into July 1788. And the writings that were poured forth, and in a superlative use of the English language, were more, much more, than history, philosophy or political science; it was also an English class. When reading and contemplating such writings, one readily understands that this generation was the most dynamic in the history of this Nation. Compare the writings of Adams, Madison and Franklin with the diarrhea of moronic tweets from Pennsylvania Avenue and written on a fifth grade reading level between 2016-2020 and one should readily be able to comprehend, too, why the conveyance of such simplistic, even puerile utterances, passes for modern intellectual thought in a failed political state.
The poverty of coverage or even references to the founding of the Nation and its decisive effect on the eventual demise of monarchy, to which the admittance of the Common Man into a political structure—despite the inherent faults of the original Republic—is rarely if ever acknowledged or, . . . by many, even understood.
Today’s lack of regard for the Republic–which no longer exists since America is a corporate state—is emblematic of the indifference, apathy and even ignorance by today’s voting public; a people who have been easily channeled into opting for the shadow in lieu of the substance on matters of concern, many of which decide their political and economic fortunes. For the modern American voter seems no longer capable of electing a Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt or an Abraham Lincoln. Indeed, the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections have certainly vindicated Benjamin Franklin, whose words on the final day of the Convention, September 17, 1787, accurately presaged not only the demise of American representative government but a precise understanding of the Human Condition itself:
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as all other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.
