Statesmanship and Its Betrayal

 http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=1998&month=04

These are extracts from a lecture by Mark Helprin that is well worth reading.

 

“…we have only what we have. Which is a political class that in the main has abandoned the essential qualities of statesmanship, with the excuse that these are inappropriate to our age. They are wrong. Not only do they fail to honor the principles of statesmanship, they fail to recognize them, having failed to learn them, having failed to want to learn them.

In the main, they are in it for themselves. Were they not, they would have a higher rate of attrition, falling with the colors of what they believe rather than landing always on their feet—adroitly, but in dishonor. In light of their vows and responsibilities, this constitutes not merely a failure but a betrayal. And it is a betrayal not only of statesmanship and principle but of country and kin.”

“…America would not have come out of the Civil War as it did had it not been led by Lincoln and Lee. The battles raged for five years, but for a hundred years the country, both North and South, modeled itself on their character. They exemplified almost perfectly Churchill’s statement, “Public men charged with the conduct of the war should live in a continual stress of soul.”

This continual stress of soul is necessary as well in peacetime, because for every good deed in public life there is a counterbalance. Benefits are given only after taxes are taken. That is part of governance. The statesman, who represents the whole nation, sees in the equilibrium for which he strives a continual tension between victory and defeat. If he did not understand this, he would have no stress of soul, he would be merely happy—about money showered upon the orphan, taken from the widow. About children sent to day care, so that they may be long absent from their parents. About merciful parole of criminals, who kill again. Whereas a statesman knows continual stress of soul, a politician is happy, for he knows not what he does.”

“…It is difficult for individuals or nations to recognize that war and peace alternate. But they do. No matter how long peace may last, it will end in war. Though most people cannot believe at this moment that the United States of America will ever again fight for its survival, history guarantees that it will. And, when it does, most people will not know what to do. They will believe of war, as they did of peace, that it is everlasting.

 

The statesman, who is different from everyone else, will, in the midst of common despair, see the end of war, just as during the peace he was alive to the inevitability of war, and saw it coming in the far distance, as if it were a gray wave moving quietly across a dark sea.”

“…Would that we in America come once again to understand that statesmanship is not the appetite for power but—because things matter—a holy calling of self-abnegation and self-sacrifice. We have made it something else. Nonetheless, after and despite its betrayal, statesmanship remains the manifestation, in political terms, of beauty, and balance, and truth. It is the courage to tell the truth, and thus discern what is ahead. It is a mastery of the symmetry of forces, illuminated by the genius of speaking to the heart of things.”

Eunoia

Shortest word in English with all 5 vowels. Means “beautiful thinking.” Check out Christian Bok’s book by same title. It’s fiction in which each chapter uses only one vowel. BBC has extracts.

“Hiking in British districts, I picnic in virgin firths, grinning in mirth with misfit whims, smiling if I find birch twigs, smirking it I find mint sprigs.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7697000/7697762.stm

Throwing Stones at Mt. Olympus…& Sipping Black Label

 

The Honorable Robert Bork delivered Heritage’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies inaugural Joseph Story Lecture last night titled “A Republic – If You Can Keep It.”

 

I attended the lecture, and enjoyed it very much. Bork’s wit surprised me. He is not a stodgy old man. He is good humored and carries the gracious compensation of age as though a tired body and a wise mind were light things.

 

Bork’s lecture dealt with the state of our current judicial system and the way in which it is now an institution that undermines our republican form of government.

 

One significant problem is what he called “Olympianism.” This is a reference to the mountain of the gods in Greek myth from which the gods descend to interact with mortals.* Intellectual elites are like this, said Bork, “they are willing to share their superior knowledge or they will impose it on us.” He explained that in courts all over the globe, not just in America, courts rule for themselves the authority of judicial review and then start making laws instead of judging questions of the law. In America, these Olympians prefer to pack the courts with imperialistic judges rather than abide by the Constitution.

 

The scene grows darker because the Supreme Court is the only institution in our country that claims finality. There are certain court decisions that cannot be reversed because they are too deeply set into the American mind and system. Bork cited court cases involving entitlements – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid – as example. Conservatives can try to make certain liberal things more conservative, but they cannot replace them with conservative things.

 

In Federalist 78, Alexander Hamilton said that the judiciary will always be the least dangerous branch of government because it has neither the sword nor the purse, nor force or will, just judgment. To contrast this, Bork quoted Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy who is on record saying, “a Justice has the opportunity to shape the destiny of a country.”

 

Justice Kennedy had in mind his status as the swing vote on the Supreme Court. Justices Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and Alito are Originalists in their interpretations of the Constitution whereas Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsberg, and Breyer have an organic view of the Constitution which, said Bork, boils down to little more than a subjective moral philosophy. They believe that the Constitution’s original sense has expired and is now obsolete. Between these two voting blocks, Kennedy casts the deciding ninth vote. This instance of one man rising above the supreme law of the land, the Constitution, and making laws according to his personal moral philosophy, should be shocking and dismaying, said Bork.

 

Bork said there is no legal rationale for Roe v. Wade, and that the Supreme Court’s opinion in the case that legalized abortion is simply Justice Blackmun’s personal moral philosophy and has no bearing under the Constitution that could withstand rigorous scrutiny. An Originalist interpretation of the Constitution, Bork followed, is the only way to have constitutionalism that doesn’t slip into the rule by judges.

 

Joseph Story, after whom the lecture series is named, was a Supreme Court Justice from 1811 to 1842. He is remembered for being the youngest Justice appointed at 32 years of age and for his original-intent fidelity to the Constitution. Bork pointed out that Story was a man who would change his mind if a good enough argument warranted. When Story became a Justice, he was a Teetotaler, a position he later relinquished.

 

Not coincidentally, when the Heritage lawyers host an event, they don’t mess around. Wine and beer is served at an open bar after most evening events, but rarely is liquor served as well. I relished a couple thumbs of Black Label then hopped the metro for home. 

 

* In Q&A, someone asked Judge Bork what he thought about being verbed. After his Supreme Court nomination hearings in which the Senate rejected him, someone coined the phrase “to be Borked” which means something like “to have foes distort your record.” Bork’s reply was, “It is a sort of immortality.”

General Petraeus at Heritage

The bottom line in Iraq is that U.S. forces made substantial progress, the progress is still fragile and reversible, but much less fragile than in May, said General David Petraeus at Heritage today. General Petreaus is the architect of the successful surge in Iraq and the soon-to-be commander of U.S. Central Command.

 

He discussed the military’s comprehensive strategy for building widespread security and order in Iraq.

The Iraqis are investing their money into their infrastructure, he said; as well as contracting with major U.S. businesses to stimulate economic growth. Furthermore, efforts to instill political unity through reconciliation have started to pay off.

 

In June 2007, before the surge, there were 180 counterinsurgent attacks per day in Iraq. Today, there are less than 25. This statistic is demonstrative of the surge’s overall success and the remarkable leadership of General Petraeus.   

 

After receiving extended welcome applause, General Petraeus insisted he accept the show of respect only on behalf or his Iraq veterans who he called “The New Greatest Generation.”

 

Allison Auditorium was packed with Heritage members and guests and members of the press for the General’s brief on the state of Iraq. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was in attendance. 

 

Plus: he made good jokes and moved at a good pace. Minus: he used lots of boozy political and military jargon (which made me wonder what he talks like when he is not on show).

You can watch the speech online.

 

 

Happy Johnny Appleseed Day

Johnny Appleseed wore a tin pot for a cap. He walked barefoot across the heartland of America. No fewer than 57,000 apple trees he planted still flower today, the apples sweet and crisp, in dozens and dozens of deep orchards.

When settlers put up beam and rafter,/ They asked of the birds: “Who gave this fruit? /Who watched this fence till the seeds took root?/ Who gave these boughs?” They asked the sky, /And there was no reply/ But the Robin might have said, /”To the farthest West he has followed the sun,/ His life and his empire just begun.”

Vachel Lindsay, 1922

E pluribus unum

September 11, 2001 is a day of stories. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the heart-wrenching and blood-boiling news that terrorists hijacked three planes.

The stories of those involved in the Pentagon attack – the victims, the responders, the supporters – converged at the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial which was dedicated today. It was beautiful ceremony. The President, the Secretary of Defense, former Secretary Rumsfeld, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff delivered very good speeches. Rumsfeld even quoted “an American poet” (Frost’s Acquainted with the Night). Gates quoted a poem also, but I am still looking for it. During the closing song “God Bless America,” everyone waved their American flags.

If ever you have the chance, you should visit the Pentagon Memorial. You can sit on one of the 184 benches, each dedicated to a victim. Today I saw families posing for pictures around benches, families holding services with clergymen, families making rubs from their loved one’s bench, families with flowers and balloons.

You can take a quite moment under a shady tree. You can contemplate the side of the Pentagon that the plane smashed. You can look up at the huge, three-pronged Air Force Memorial, and follow with your eyes the line of approach that the plane took; the center prong happens to match the flight path of American Airlines 77.

You can share these details and tell your stories to those Americans who will have no living memory of what happened on September 11, 2001.

You can imagine the flames, and share in the heartache of those who lost loved ones at that place. You can remember.

It is a very good memorial. It is worthy of the resolve that makes our American spirit sturdy despite attacks, that makes us one though many.  

God bless America.

Home, Sweet Home

 

City of Subdued Heat

Two Reason Why Seattle Kicks A

Father’s Day

each day my Papa girds the Jesus-Armor and
takes to fight on prayer-worn-knees that
Kingdom come to me and mine
and us and ours
to here and now
even as it is in heaven, Amen.

my daily pillow fights in Washington
with pen and pad and shiny suits and shoes
seem oh, so silly when on my own prayer-worn-floor
I lift to heaven’s hands the warrior, the giant, the man, my Dad.

JDR

from www.toothpastefordinner.com