America Is Living James Madison’s Nightmare

The Atlantic ^ | October 2018 Issue | Jeffrey Rosen

[thecodont]

James Madison traveled to Philadelphia in 1787 with Athens on his mind. He had spent the year before the Constitutional Convention reading two trunkfuls of books on the history of failed democracies, sent to him from Paris by Thomas Jefferson. Madison was determined, in drafting the Constitution, to avoid the fate of those “ancient and modern confederacies,” which he believed had succumbed to rule by demagogues and mobs.

Madison’s reading convinced him that direct democracies—such as the assembly in Athens, where 6,000 citizens were required for a quorum—unleashed populist passions that overcame the cool, deliberative reason prized above all by Enlightenment thinkers. “In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever characters composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason,” he argued in The Federalist Papers, the essays he wrote (along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay) to build support for the ratification of the Constitution. “Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.”

[rollo tomasi]

Rosen needs to take some more history classes and read archival enumerations by those he is talking about.

"The first parties played an unexpected cooling function, uniting diverse economic and regional interests through shared constitutional visions."

The Federalists and Democratic-Republicans were divided, yes, but did not share "constitutional visions". Not sharing "constitutional visions" was the biggest reason why they were divided. And guess what, Madison told the Federalists bye-bye, because he began to understand where the Anti-Federalists were coming from and solidified his belief when Judicial review was rammed down the Constitutional throat with Marbury vs. "Himself".

[ckilmer]

actually imho the republic is working exactly as it was designed to work.

If Trump can hold on to the house and senate in november —all these liberals will be singing a different song.

[TBP]

Yes, it is.

One place to start would be to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment.

[IronJack]

Oh, look Mommy! Liberals have discovered the Founders! You know, like they occasionally discover the Bible whenever it suits them?

[MarMema]

I am convinced this is deliberate because what they want is a socialist democracy.

Much more evil than ignorant.

[Taxman]

I really hoped and prayed that during my lifetime (I am 77) I would enjoy at least one election wherein both parties debated as to which one was best equipped to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

President Trump is certainly doing that; he took his Oath of Office seriously:

“I Donald John Trump do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, So Help Me God.”

But the Democrats clearly have no understanding of the concept of “Duty, Honor, or Country!”

All these LIEberals have done since long before President Trump won the 2016 election is try to destroy him and the country!

We are most fortunate that, so far, the LIEberals have not prevailed!

A POX ON THEIR HOUSE! MAY THE LIEBERALS WANDER FOREVER IN THE WASTELANDS, FAR, FAR REMOVED FROM THE SEATS OF POWER!

DEMOCRATS MUST NOT WIN ON NOVEMBER 6!

[philman_36]

The Framers designed the American constitutional system not as a direct democracy but as a representative republic, where enlightened delegates of the people would serve the public good.

No, they didn't. It says right there "the American constitutional system". That means a Constitutional Republic, not a representative republic.
A representative republic is the rule of men, not the rule of law.

What the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on our President, and the President of our choice has assented to, & accepted over the friendly strangers, to whom the mild spirit of our country, & it’s laws had pledged hospitality & protection: that the men of our choice have more respected the bare suspicions of the President, than the solid rights of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, & the forms and substance of law & justice: in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.
Thomas JeffersonThe preservation of the republic urgently requires imparting constitutional principles to a new generation and reviving Madisonian reason in an impetuous world.
This article is not doing that through promulgating that a representative republic was established instead of a Constitutional Republic.
They've put the cart (representative republic) before the horse (Constitutional Republic).

[Jacquerie]

<>Senators do not represent the “the people of their states,” but rather, the people of their parties.<>

An excellent distinction!

[Jacquerie]

What was the alternative?

[mrsmith]

""the American constitutional system". "

Which is unique, and exceptional.
Madison et al rejected not just democracy, but feudalism in all it's forms.
They crated a *rational* structure of government. It is still the only such in the world.
Other countries merely injected democracy into the feudal structure of their governments. An improvement, to be sure, but they are still bound by their feudal structures.

Our states had many feudal powers in their territory, and the Federal government had many feudal powers in foreign affairs and between the states. But the structure was not feudal. It was rationally the best that could be created.

Very disappointing that no other country has taken up the challenge of our experiment.

[rollo tomasi]

Start over once this system breaks down; we are way beyond making corrections and going back to the Great Compromise among the States and the Federal government.

The more people crave direct democracy which gives more power to the centralized Federal government (In general), the quicker we get to the end. You know what is causing this? The expansion of voting privilidges, which morphed into "rights". A homeless bum has the same power as the responsible land owner. The emotionally manipulated have the same power as a logical landowner.

On a side note I have to point out this:

"Madison feared that Congress would be the most dangerous branch of the federal government, sucking power into its “impetuous vortex.” But today he would shudder at the power of the executive branch."

This is idiotic reasoning since CONGRESS transferred their power along with relegating responsibilities to the Executive Branch through Administrative Law. Madison was correct, Congress sucks, but the Supreme Court sucks the most. Executive Branch sucks the least because their power could have been easily contained by CONGRESS.

[Albion Wilde]

bump