The Long Clasp, Part II – The Long Clasp

The Long Clasp (Post 12)

Part IIThe Threat **THE PEOPLE §§ Difference is not Division §§(continued) {But what if the lowliest of us are the regulators? What if we take it upon ourselves to determine how best, how reasonably and justly, to regulate conflict? A place to start would be to discern why earlier attempts failed.} [end of post 11]Continue reading “The Long Clasp (Post 12)”

The Long Clasp (Post 11)

Difference is not Division

The Long Clasp (Post 10)

Part IIThe Threat **THE PEOPLE §§§ Race and The People The principles invoked by Jefferson are moral principles: All men are created equal, endowed with. . .; Do unto others as. . .; Love your neighbor as. . .. “We the People of the United States of America” is a political construct. The phrase disincludesContinue reading “The Long Clasp (Post 10)”

The Long Clasp (Post 9)

Part IIThe Threat **THE PEOPLE §§ Slavery and The People Madison was a slave-holder. So was Washington. So was Jefferson. Madison is credited as the chief author of the Constitution. That document does not contain the words slave or slavery anywhere, until the 13th Amendment abolished it after the Civil War. That the author ofContinue reading “The Long Clasp (Post 9)”

The Long Clasp (Post 8)

Part IIThe Threat **THE PEOPLE The arrangement addressed by the proposed Constitution and dissected by Hamilton amounted to a government of the States, by the States, and for the States. Thirteen sovereign States established it by agreement amongst themselves. Their legislatures appointed the delegates to the Congress. The business of the government included little elseContinue reading “The Long Clasp (Post 8)”

The Long Clasp (Post 7)

Part IIThe Threat *UNION §§ The Defect In considering the necessity to throw over utterly the Articles of Confederation as inadequate to sustain the Union, Hamilton, in particular, analyzed nine major defects of that document. The great and radical vice in the construction of the existing Confederation is the principle of LEGISLATION for STATESContinue reading “The Long Clasp (Post 7)”

The Long Clasp (Post 6)

Part IIThe Threat *UNION § Politics How shall we understand “power”? Without waxing prolix and philosophical, I offer the following thoughts by limiting its use to the everyday world of human beings. “Power” refers to the wherewithal to direct and control desired outcomes. The strength of that power may emanate from the character, the will,Continue reading “The Long Clasp (Post 6)”

The Long Clasp (Post 5)

Part IIThe Threat *UNION USAmerican exceptionalism lies not in the hand of God, nor in its economic/military dominance of the world, nor in the accident that this is my country. Human beings, thoughtful, serious, profoundly capable human beings, two-and-a-half hundred years before our time at a moment of economic and military ebb tide, acted onContinue reading “The Long Clasp (Post 5)”