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From the Guardian:
The 100 best nonfiction books: No 81 - The Federalist Papers by ‘Publius’ - 1788
Excerpt -
In the present public "debate", it seems that we have forgot the reasons why - subsequent to the defeat of the British monarchy - the states had some difficulty in agreeing to combine into one nation under a central government. It was particularly the southern-states who were preoccupied with their lack of population vis-a-vis the north. Which, ipso facto, gave them less political power in which to maneuver.
The only way to appease them was to "manipulate" the popular-vote by means of the Electoral College, which lead to this historical fact: Five times in the history of the United States a democratic popular-vote was overturned by the Electoral College.
This fact alone is a travesty of democratic rule!
For true democracy to reign in our republic of states, we must "grow up" to the fact that ONLY THE POPULAR VOTE decides the presidency. Just like it decides elections to the Legislature and all public offices within the states ...
NB: And the fact that it will be difficult to overturn the 12th Amendment to bring Truly Complete Democracy to America is simply a "given", and not a reason not to do so. We are simply correcting an historical mistake that is an obstacle to true democracy.
The 100 best nonfiction books: No 81 - The Federalist Papers by ‘Publius’ - 1788
Excerpt -
Addressing a debate that reverberates to the present day, Hamilton and Madison made a brilliant and powerful case for “the UNION”. In essay no 9 (the words are Hamilton’s) we see their breadth of wisdom and learning: “It is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of Greece and Italy without feeling sensations of horror and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually agitated, and at the rapid successions of revolutions by which they were kept in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy.”
To this, Jay added his own voice, in another powerful essay: “Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government; and it is equally undeniable that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights, in order to vest it with requisite powers.”
In such a situation, said Jay, Americans had to ask themselves the one question that would eventually morph into the debate about states’ rights: “Whether it would conduce more to the interests of the people that they should be one nation, under one federal government, than that they should divide themselves into separate confederacies…”
Who knows how many Americans ever fully engaged with the complex and enthralling ideas embodied in this remarkable, and strangely passionate, text? At the time, these essays were avidly consumed by voters and readers in New York, to whom they were addressed. Hamilton seems to have encouraged the reprinting of his work in newspapers outside New York State and in several other states where the ratification debate was raging.
In reality, they appeared irregularly outside New York, and in other parts of the country, where they were often overshadowed by local writers addressing local issues, a phenomenon that persists. In the long run, what was really influential, as many have pointed out, was the rhetorical dignity and decorum expressed in these polemical pages. “Publius” was learned, wise, tolerant and, above all, rational. He was a figure of the Enlightenment who believed in secular society and secular government. And perhaps he wasn’t wrong.
The US constitution is still going strong, in some ways now more so than ever. Despite the ugliest rhetoric ever witnessed within the Union, America is not “broken”, though possibly not in the best of health. That it should draw any political breath at all, in the current circumstances, is due significantly to the writings of men such as Hamilton, Madison and Jay.
In the present public "debate", it seems that we have forgot the reasons why - subsequent to the defeat of the British monarchy - the states had some difficulty in agreeing to combine into one nation under a central government. It was particularly the southern-states who were preoccupied with their lack of population vis-a-vis the north. Which, ipso facto, gave them less political power in which to maneuver.
The only way to appease them was to "manipulate" the popular-vote by means of the Electoral College, which lead to this historical fact: Five times in the history of the United States a democratic popular-vote was overturned by the Electoral College.
This fact alone is a travesty of democratic rule!
For true democracy to reign in our republic of states, we must "grow up" to the fact that ONLY THE POPULAR VOTE decides the presidency. Just like it decides elections to the Legislature and all public offices within the states ...
NB: And the fact that it will be difficult to overturn the 12th Amendment to bring Truly Complete Democracy to America is simply a "given", and not a reason not to do so. We are simply correcting an historical mistake that is an obstacle to true democracy.