Grand Old Partisan

Accuracy in Academia ^ | November 9, 2009 | Malcolm A. Kline

[bs9021]

Grand Old Partisan

Malcolm A. Kline, November 9, 2009

In his acceptance speech, Virginia’s governor-elect, Bob McDonnell, may have quoted the founding fathers more extensively than the last four U. S. presidents combined have in their entire political careers. But then, he also may have made more such references than many teachers do in their working lifetimes.

Among pedagogues, a notable exception to this trend is Colleen A. Sheehan, author of James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government. “Our core of self –government has been on the wane for a century and grows weaker every day,” Sheehan told an audience at the Heritage Foundation on October 6, 2009.

She points out that presidents once talked more about the Constitution. “The same revolutionary beliefs for which our forbears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God,” John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural address in 1961. “We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution.” Yes we are.

Sheehan indicates that the epidemic of historical amnesia that America has been experiencing has been building for some time. “Can we treat the Constitution as if it were something gone by?” poet laureate Robert Frost asked the Class of 1956 at Sarah Lawrence. “Can we interpret it out of existence?” In the words of a famous man, yes we can!

What makes history fascinating is not so much the differences in eras as the similarities. Elites seize on the former, usually to discredit historical icons. These same worthies conveniently ignore the latter parallels, perhaps because the comparisons do not suit their purposes....

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

What if they gave a health care mandate and nobody came? Could we ignore this government out of existence? Yes we must!

[EternalVigilance]

A wonderful post.

I want this book.