Reality, Not Ideology

I want to expand on something I wrote earlier this week. The American Revolution was not a typical revolution. The motivation behind the revolt and then succession from Great Britain was not simply a political ideal that drove the movement. It was actually an event that was part of a long standing British tradition. Throughout the Medieval and early Modern periods England had a number of internal conflicts between the crown and the nobility. Those conflicts dealt with the issue of royal authority.

When kings grow to strong they tend to act as tyrants. The nobles would then rebel and demand changes to the government. The changes were always based in the idea that royal authority was limited, that it was based in law and tradition. In France Louis XIV took almost godlike powers to himself. That would never have been tolerated in Britain.

The American Revolution began as an assembly of respectable leaders who gathered together to ask for a redress of grievances. Even their language was typical of what you see throughout earlier conflicts in England. They blamed the King's ministers, not the King. It was the actions of the King and the British government that lead to the final break.

Even then they were not motivated by political dogma. The creation of the American Republic was a cautionary work. Everything that they did was done after much debate. There was always a practical end in mind. They were not seeking one, uniform ideal. Their was no driving political dogma. That is why the bloodshed in the American Revolution was largely contained to the battlefield. At no time did the government round up and slaughter those with whom it disagreed.

The other revolutions that followed and changed the world were not so enlightened. The French and Russian Revolutions were led by men with a very strong political bent. They had a developed ideology and all had to conform. That is why both of those revolutions are better known for the oppression and suffering that they created than for anything else.

The French Revolution proclaimed Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood. In order to achieve that end they slaughtered tens of thousands of their own people. The Russian Revolution was even worse. The number given for those purged by Lenin was over 9 million. Not bad for seven years. Stalin followed his mentor's example and exterminated about twenty million more of his fellow citizens. Some estimate that, during the twentieth century, around 100 million people were murdered because of political ideology.

I hope that you will remember this lesson. It doesn't matter if you are conservative or liberal. Please remember that the demand for ideological purity is not only dangerous, but downright un-American.


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Just Trying To Keep Up

Just to make sure I know where we stand with the flaming rhetoric.

A crazy nut job who believes that his dreams are a parallel universe asks a meaningless question to a Congresswoman in 2005. She blows him off. He develops a hatred for her. Five years later this kook who believes in UFOs, dream universes, smokes pot, burns the American Flag, and hates Christianity attacks that same Congresswoman. Killing and injuring multiple bystanders.

Now we are supposed to blame talk radio, who as far as we know he never listened to, and Fox News, which as far as we know he never watched. We are also supposed to blame Sarah Palin for reasons unknown. I say reasons unknown because this man's hatred for Congresswoman Giffords goes back to a time before we ever heard of Palin.

Have I left anything out?



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The Art of Compromise

I have studied history since before I can even remember. According to my parents I was reading before my third birthday. I have always loved history and read it as a child. I love the history of my nation. The United States of America is a truly unique study in history. As a nation we were not the by product of kingly ambition. Rather we were built by a group of men carving out a new idea.

As I have studied history I have come to realize that phrases like "the Founding Fathers believed..." to be somewhat erroneous. There was no unified belief among those who created our nation. In fact there were many different views as to what our nation should be. Our foundational document the Constitution of the United States did not spring full formed from the head of Zeus. It was built by arduous debate and compromise.

The ability to compromise and reach a middle ground has been the hallmark of the American Republic. That is our greatness. We don't accept any "pure" political philosophy. Rather we borrow from them all. A little here, a little there. We try to take the best ideas out there and find ways to incorporate them. We should be proud of that tradition. We don't need European style political philosophers trying to give us the perfect system. Our ancestors left the Old World behind. Let us do the same.

The truth is that no one is without bad ideas. What we need to do is spend time listening to each other. We need to find the valid points in the arguments of both sides. Then work a way into the middle. Find that point of compromise. What can we agree on and build from there. As voters and as citizens we should demand this of our leaders. We should not demand ideological purity. The last thing we need is a secular version of the wars of religion that nearly destroyed Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. What we need is the good old American can-do spirit. I guarantee that there is a middle ground that we can agree on with issues like taxes, immigration, health care, etc.

Will everyone be happy? No. Who cares? Let those who demand some form of ideological purity crawl back into the ivory towers. We are a practical people. We were not founded by theorists. We were founded and made great by practical ideas. We must remember that simple truth and let go of our political dogmas if we wish to end this polarization that has overwhelmed our nation. We are better than this. Together we can accomplish much. Divided, we will fall.


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