Athens, Rome and Jerusalem

(plus Oxford and Kirkcaldy)

The Founding Fathers all came from the elite of colonial society. About half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence had attended college at a time when only one of every 2,500 people had gone to college (there were only nine colleges or universities back in 1776). Almost 80% of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were college educated. All were men and most were wealthy.

These men were steeped in classicism of ancient civilizations especially democratic Athens and the Roman Republic. Many spoke Latin and Greek. Their writings and speeches drew inspiration from the writers and historians of the era (Plutarch, Thucydides) made frequent reference to the great figures of those ancient civilizations (Cato, Cicero, Cincinnatus) and the great villains of history (Cataline, Caesar). And when forming a new country they were inspired by the ideals and principles of the ancients as described by Thomas Ricks in his book, First Principles.

But the Founders were not forming just any old new country. They were forming a new conception of how a country should be. Not based on ancestry or religions, or even conquering armies, but on ideals and principles. And many of those ideals and principles came from democratic Athens and the Roman Republic. At least, that was the idea.

But Athenians and Romans had very different ideas on what those principles should be. Athenian democracy was vulnerable to populists and demagogues and could often be chaotic or devolve into mob rule while the Roman Republic suffered from repeated power grabs by elites and generals. We describe our political system as a democratic republic meaning America is a hybrid of these classic systems (as Mr. Ricks notes in his book the word “democracy” is derived from Greek while “republic” is derived from Latin). The Founders tried to create a system that placed checks and balances on the accumulation of power but also checked the potential anarchy of too much democracy.

But the model that the Founders relied on most was John Locke’s philosophy on the rights of individual people as described in his Second Treatise on Government much of which was the inspiration behind the Declaration of Independence. Adam Smith also had great influence on the structure of our government but not because of the free-trade economic theories contained in his book, The Wealth of Nations, but rather his understanding of the nature of self-interest described in his book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Self-interest is present in all people, it is after all a very important survival characteristic. The Founders understood that all participants in government, from lowly clerks to the chief executive, act to a degree in their own self-interest. If we couldn’t eliminate self-interest in our public servants we could at least limit their abilities to put self-interest ahead of the public good by blocking the accumulation of government power.

But the Greek and Roman classics learned by colonial elites started to fade soon after the creation of the new nation. George Washington was elected (unanimously) in 1788 by only 28,009 voters  - all land owning white men. Less than one percent of the three million or so people in America at that time. By 1828 more than one million voters turned out to elect Andrew Jackson as president. Most of those voters had not attended elite colleges and spoke no Greek or Latin. But they did read the Bible. Classic virtues were overlaid by Christian virtues especially in the opposition to slavery which was inconsistent with the Enlightenment values of John Locke and the Declaration of Independence.

So America entered the nineteenth century infused with the classical virtues of Rome (epitomized by George Washington) and Athens (epitomized by Thomas Jefferson) with a Constitution inspired by John Locke and forewarned by Adam Smith and guided by a Christian religion that described how to live a good life. Of course, most Americans ignored all that. Throughout our history these values and principles have been inconsistently applied. Slavery lasted much too long. Our treatment of the indigenous tribes was awful. The gritty factory floor was worked by women and children. But those principles and value were always there, gnawing at our consciences. Until we ultimately do the right thing, as Winston Churchill commented.

But our political struggles in the twenty-first century are different. Political leaders on the MAGA right and progressive left reject those values and principles that made America great. The progressive left has adopted the principles and values of Karl Marx and, even worse, some of the more extreme outgrowths of Marxism like critical race theory. The extreme outgrowths of Marxism arose because Marxism itself was a failure. All these new ideologies of the left are also doomed to failure. So why are so many people enamored with these bizarre and logically impossible doctrines. Its arrogance. The intellectual elites that have taken over American educational institutions and many medical and professional organizations think that their advanced degrees justify their telling other people what to do. Much like what the Founders tried to do but with a difference. The elites on the left believe that the common people do not deserve agency over their own lives because, left to themselves, they would not act in the public good (as determined by the same leftist elites). And the left envisions a powerful government to make sure the people work for the common good and not in their own self-interest.

The MAGA right also denies people agency over their lives. They believe that anti-business elites on the left along with free-trade Republicans have hollowed out American manufacturing and left blue collar workers in the lurch. There is nothing those poor folks can do. They believe that learning new skills and adjusting to change are beyond their abilities. Only Donald Trump (along with his crony capitalists) can save them. But the MAGA mechanisms to save flyover country are schemes that were abandoned long ago. But they weren’t abandoned because of some great conspiracy of the wealthy elites. They were abandoned because they didn’t work, kept people poor, and made the world less safe.

The elite of both the right and left suffer from arrogance. And the common people vote them into office from envy egged on by partisan politics. Whether they go progressive left or MAGA right it does not matter. Their mechanisms for curing the problems afflicting the American people are the same, more power to government and less agency to people to make them dependent on that government power. They both want to the people to forget the values and principles that made America great in the first place. France is on its fifth republic (after many monarchs and emperors), but it is still France. England has had many dynasties, but it is still England. In the last hundred years Spain has had kings, fascist dictators and democracies, but it has always been Spain. But without our founding principles, is America still America? I don’t think that President Trump would understand that question. Or maybe he just doesn’t care.

If we really want to solve the problems that confront us at home, here in America we, adults, need to unlearn what the purveyors of ever-bigger government and government/union controlled education have been telling us for decades. Our founding values and principles were, and still are, good. They made us great. The envy of the world. Of course we made mistakes along the way. But we must learn from our mistakes, not dwell on them. Wallowing in the mire of past mistakes only leads to depression and mental illness. And waiting for big government or a great leader to solve our problems will only march us further down the path toward oblivion. We need to teach our kids and grandkids that America’s founding principles are more valid today than ever. Those kids, and their parents, need to be taught that they CAN shape their own future. And that will make a better future for everyone.