Today I find myself reminded of the old Bible story of King Solomon who, when two women came before him, both claiming to be the natural and rightful mother of a child, devised a clever way to settle the dispute.
Most of us will remember the story: with the case being one woman's word against the other, and with no practical means at hand to discern the truth, Solomon asked for his sword, so that he might equitably divide the child in two so that both women could be accommodated.
The first woman immediately withdrew her claim, pleading to let the child remain intact and in the custody of the other woman. The second woman preferred the child be divided.
Of course, this told old Solomon all he needed to know: the first woman was the rightful mother, since she was willing to forfeit her claim to the child so that the child might live; and the second woman was clearly the deceitful one, who would opt to cut in two a child she did not bear, out of spite. Solomon gave the child to the rightful mother in the end.
I see story this as an analogy to what tempestuous throngs of Democrats tried to do during the recounts and Electoral College proceedings, and in fact strive to continue. They felt their candidate, a Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was entitled to the presidency based entirely on her having won the popular vote -- in spite of the fact that Trump won the Electoral College. Unfortunately for her and her vociferous followers, in this country elections are Constitutionally determined by the states via the EC, and not by a simple tally of the popular vote.
There are numerous reasons why the Founders chose to make this country a Constitutional Republic predicated on the rule of law, instead of a pure Democracy, ruled solely by the expressed preferences of the majority. This has all been beaten to death by social media in recent days, So I'll keep this little sidebar short: all things considered, IMHO the Founders opted for the better approach.
In my possibly awkward little analogy, the child in question is our Constitution, the legal and philosophical foundation of this nation.
The first woman represents the true patriots (no matter their party preference) — those who are willing to sacrifice their own preferences, if need be, for the good of the country so that the Constitution which has served us well for over two centuries might thrive.
The second woman — the one who would take a sword and divide by force, thereby abrogating the very foundations upon which this country was built, all so that their particular flavor of mob rule might be installed in its stead — represents the deceitful Hillary and the mob of disgruntled Democrats pushing to overturn the election by any means imaginable, even if it means rewriting the election rules after the fact, the US Constitution be damned.
As you might surmise, I have no respect for such an agenda. In the interest of comity, I hesitate to condemn Democrats too strongly here, as they tend to feel things very strongly and seem quick to take offense these days when they are criticized. It’s this abiding sense of moral superiority that’s compelling them, I think, to such brash and irritating behavior. So hey, they gotta do what they gotta do, I suppose… but it does push one’s patience to the limit sometimes.
So the question becomes… in this analogy, who is King Solomon? No, it’s not Donald Trump… give me a break. Trump is to be our next president, and in some ways he’s as good, other ways as bad, as anyone drawing breath. We can hope (and work on our own) for the best, but time will tell what he manages to do for, or against, the best interests of the nation. And time will tell how we, as Americans, recover and move on from the unprecedented election we have just witnessed.
Yes, time will tell. And it is Time — our American Future — that Solomon represents to me in this analogy. Will it be a future predicated on wisdom, or will it be a future predicated on ignorance, forgetting and subverting more and more of the foundations which built the greatest nation on Earth? America was blessed with many advantages too numerous to count; natural resources and philosophical, cultural and political advancements (prime example, our Constitution) that could only have developed here, but we have also let go of many of the principles which led us well for decades and centuries in our quest for that “more perfect union”.
While we, as mere humans *and* as a nation, have made and continue to make mistakes every day, on every level (and God knows our government has devolved into a monstrosity in many ways, and sorely needs reforming), to move wisely into our future requires that we examine closely the ideas, laws and institutions which have grown up around us, to separate the wheat from the chaff, and dismiss what *truly* does not work anymore and embrace new ways that do work going forward. Trump ran as the ultimate disruptor of the status quo, and I feel he will strive to do just that. Perhaps he can manage, if he succeeds in creating the proverbial "rising tide that lifts all boats", to persuade at least *some* liberals into judging him less harshly.
The founders made a path for change — passing Amendments to the Constitution — so that it not become calcified and unable to reflect and accommodate our cultural and political evolution in the march of American history. Rather than attempt a political coup by thwarting the Electoral College, the better approach would be to fly your suggestions up the flagpole and see if the nation salutes.
Perhaps the purely democratic ideal will one day come to be considered preferable to a representative republic, but I somehow doubt it. It was deemed inadequate back when the smartest and most liberty-loving men and women in history came together to birth a new nation, and from all I’ve learned pure democracy is even more woefully inadequate today. Two wolves and a sheep discussing what’s for dinner is bad enough; 320,000,000 individuals caught up in a contest for mob rule hardly strikes me as equitable, fair or… well, anything short of a recipe for unmitigated tyranny, frankly.
I know such expressions sound old-fashioned, perhaps even archaic and irrelevant to many folks now, but I believe in my heart these things are true, and remain unmoved by leftist pronouncements to the contrary.
~~ Jeff Foster
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First published in StringDancer Dec 20, 2016.
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