The Rise of Rove's Republic
Here's a snippet from an excellent new blog entry by kossak Stirling Newberry. For the full entry please click on the title below.
The Rise of Rove's Republic
by Stirling Newberry
Stirling Newberry's diary
Tue Feb 22nd, 2005 at 08:12:40 PST
Most people in the outside world do not explicitly believe we are passing through a period of constitutional crisis. That an impeachment was run over a blow job didn't clue them in. That a president was installed by judicial fiat did not clue them in. That a war was launched which is, and was, essentially a giant looting expedition on the Treasury has not clued them in.
So what is going on? What is the thread that unifies Iraq and Social Security, the election crisis of 2000?
The process of American Constitutional change, and according to that process, the greatest dangers lie ahead, not behind us.
I. Mandate. Meaning. Money.
A constitutional order has three parts: mandate - what the government should do - and meaning - how the public views the role of its duties, rights and options in relationship to the government. These are tied together by mechanism - how the government functions. In American history, and to no small extent world history, the most important mechanism is money. Not in the sense of who gets money - but in the sense of how money works. Each of these three parts of government are often written about, but how they interact is usually handled poorly - because generally an author knows one well, details it quite clearly, and then tries to apply the thesis of one to the others. The situation is more complex - each interacts with the others, and the process of bringing all of them into harmony is not immediate, it does not lend it self to nice clear lines of demarcation.
But a new constitutional order must get all three in sync - people must expect of a government what it can accomplish through handling mechanisms, and through motivating meaning.
Money is the key lens of an American constitutional order, because it is the one part of that order that must work every single day. Money is the constitution that you carry with you, the government backs its functioning.
[ click here for the rest of the article "The Rise of Rove's Republic"
The Rise of Rove's Republic
by Stirling Newberry
Stirling Newberry's diary
Tue Feb 22nd, 2005 at 08:12:40 PST
Most people in the outside world do not explicitly believe we are passing through a period of constitutional crisis. That an impeachment was run over a blow job didn't clue them in. That a president was installed by judicial fiat did not clue them in. That a war was launched which is, and was, essentially a giant looting expedition on the Treasury has not clued them in.
So what is going on? What is the thread that unifies Iraq and Social Security, the election crisis of 2000?
The process of American Constitutional change, and according to that process, the greatest dangers lie ahead, not behind us.
I. Mandate. Meaning. Money.
A constitutional order has three parts: mandate - what the government should do - and meaning - how the public views the role of its duties, rights and options in relationship to the government. These are tied together by mechanism - how the government functions. In American history, and to no small extent world history, the most important mechanism is money. Not in the sense of who gets money - but in the sense of how money works. Each of these three parts of government are often written about, but how they interact is usually handled poorly - because generally an author knows one well, details it quite clearly, and then tries to apply the thesis of one to the others. The situation is more complex - each interacts with the others, and the process of bringing all of them into harmony is not immediate, it does not lend it self to nice clear lines of demarcation.
But a new constitutional order must get all three in sync - people must expect of a government what it can accomplish through handling mechanisms, and through motivating meaning.
Money is the key lens of an American constitutional order, because it is the one part of that order that must work every single day. Money is the constitution that you carry with you, the government backs its functioning.
[ click here for the rest of the article "The Rise of Rove's Republic"
posted by JamBoi at 10:15 AM
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