About
Republican 101 features daily entries edited by Matt Parks and David Corbin that apply fundamental republican principles to the politics of our day. For a fuller exposition of the ideas that have informed the creation of this blog, please read the introduction below from republican 101: Lessons for our republic from Abraham Lincoln and the Founders.
“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.”
- Abraham Lincoln, “A House Divided,” June 16, 1858
There is something wrong with our politics that one or two elections cannot solve. In the last three years, we have had a Republican president with a Democratic congress and a Democratic president with a Democratic congress. In the next three years, it is very possible that we will have a Democratic president with a Republican congress, followed by a Republican president with a Republican congress. And when every combination of R’s and D’s has been exhausted and all our deck chairs rearranged, our ship will still be sinking – and we with it – if we have not addressed the roots of our political disorder: the progressive abandonment of our republican principles and heritage. This need never have happened and it need not continue. If we can sweep away the entrenched men and measures that are smothering our good republic, we may preserve for posterity the gift of Founders wiser than ourselves.
“WHERE WE ARE AND WHITHER WE ARE TENDING”
President Obama’s first year in office dramatically accelerated trends that have generally defined the politics of the last two decades: spending and deficits beyond all recognizable levels, expanded government control of our lives and livelihoods, and a growing disconnect between our privileged political class and the rest of America. The result has been a dispirited public and a consensus among “informed” commentators that we the people are too unintelligent to deal with our complex problems, that the United States is in irreversible decline, and that only a rapid infusion of Chinese-style authoritarianism can stave off total collapse.
In examining where we are, this site begins with the premise that American decline is neither inevitable nor impossible. The rugged republican path by which a few million colonists in backwater America turned in to history’s freest, most prosperous, and most powerful nation remains open, though years of neglect may have allowed the wild undergrowth to the right and to the left to obscure the way. Clearing this path for use in our own generation must begin with a restatement of the key principles that have shaped it: a refresher course in what it means to live republican lives in our time, republican 101.
Someone might respond: “What can a study in republicanism accomplish? What does reading a blog on political ideas have to do with maintaining our way of life? Why not skip the reading and organize a tea party, write op-eds, or get on talk shows?” Because the worth of such things depends on understanding “where we are and whither we are tending.” Anyone who looks into what ails us understands that the people who are making things worse believe that they are better than we, that they know more than we, and that we’re incapable of governing ourselves. To speak and act usefully, we have to be clear about why and how they are wrong. We have to be clear about what is right and why it is so. America’s Founders also had to deal with rulers who assumed that they had a natural right to rule. Our Founders were able to free themselves from their presumed betters because they tempered their anger with understanding and married theory to practice.
The American Founders knew well the work they were about. Although they left us with a number of definitions of the republic they sought to establish, John Adams spoke for all when he described its essence: “an empire of laws, and not of men.” In the best republic, the laws are made, executed, and adjudicated impartially, transparently, and exactly. Regardless of one’s party or ideological affiliation, one could not claim that American government operates in such a manner today. This is not because we explicitly reject these ideals: every new politician enters office promising impartiality, transparency, and fair dealing. And yet far too often the result is only one more leader quickly and quietly assimilated into the noxious Washington culture of a solipsistic ruling class.
We got here because some convinced themselves that it was more important to grab the nearest pot of gold or influence than to submit to the uncertainties of the quiet, private life that is quintessentially republican – and the rest joined the cause, acquiesced, or simply got discouraged. That is why we must pluck up our courage, retrace our steps along the wrong paths we’ve taken, and repair the damage.
REPUBLICAN AND POST-REPUBLICAN CITIZENS
Central to our trouble is the fact that we have lost touch with what it means to be a citizen of a republic – to expect and demand nothing less and nothing more than the impartial, transparent, and exact administration of the law. Such a view of citizenship begins with an understanding of two fundamental moral facts about human beings: that we are equal in dignity with one another and morally responsible for the justice of our actions. Neither of these principles predetermines the right level of taxation or spending, the best measures for health care reform, or the particular policy to be adopted in any other area – rather, they go to the foundations of our political order. They ask: have I proposed a rule for others that I could live with myself? Can I give a reason for my policy more meaningful than: “because I (or we) say so?”
It is natural that in any human society there will be profound differences on myriad political and philosophical questions. A republican citizen, however, knows that, as he pursues his own best understanding of the good life, there is no reason why both he and his neighbor, whatever their differences, ought not to enjoy the protection of their person and their property on terms as agreeable to those without power as to those with it. Nevertheless, interest groups today cultivate division, appealing to our lowest desires for easy gain, and willingly subvert (and convince us to subvert) legitimate republican government for the sake of a merely private good. Of course, once the scrum begins, few can afford to be bystanders – or avoid the bruises to their dignity and mud stains on their character that inevitably follow. The result is something very different from the citizen of a republic – a thoroughly debased confidence man with a gift for rationalizing plunder.
REPUBLICAN AND POST-REPUBLICAN STATESMEN
There is also a sort of political leadership suitable to a republic. A republican statesman respects the rule of law – he would not enslave free men even to free slaves. He would not take from Peter to give to Paul (or Mary). He leads as he would wish to be led. He doesn’t play the part of the biased judge, the dictatorial executive, or the backroom legislator. His ambition is tied to upholding the empire of laws rather than furthering his empire over men.
That some, under any form of government, desire an empire over men is not surprising. All humans seek recognition at some level. The most ambitious in our democratic age often possess a “fortunate astuteness” that enables them to take advantage of the many by convincing them that impartial, exact, and transparent governance is both unfeasible and undesirable. The history of our republic, however, tells a different tale. We need not hopelessly romanticize the past to know that there have been times when a greater regard for the common good prevailed among our leaders – or to see the blessings that resulted.
Post-republican American politicians come in all shapes and sizes. The great majority are office-seekers and -keepers. A smaller segment is made up of demagogues, contaminating and indenturing public opinion for the sake of political Nielsen shares. The least typical and most dangerous of all are the would-be Caesars who seek to destroy a republic that draws attention away from their individual glory. The alternative, in different ways, to each of these is the republican statesmen whose ambition is satisfied by the good work of preserving and purifying the regime.
REPUBLICAN AND POST-REPUBLICAN POLITICS
Although the American founders understood that there was something decisively new in their approach to politics, they had no illusions that they had stumbled upon a new race of men, capable of transcending differences of opinion or interest. They themselves were often divided on important questions. Nevertheless, they recognized the distinction between divisions based upon competing understanding of what would serve the good of all and divisions arising out of the pursuit of merely private gain. While parties might legitimately result from the former, the latter was only the seedbed of factions. These ought to be shamed and harried from the public square to whatever degree possible, even if the causes from which they sprung could not be removed. How did the founders attempt to cleanse their politics from the stain of faction? Beyond efforts at constitutional construction aimed at mitigating the effects of faction, they insisted that politics be constrained by the claims of justice and that justice itself be pursued lawfully and prudently.
We see precious little of this approach to politics today. Instead of utilizing republican means, advocates for change (usually progressives) employ judicial fiat, the expansion of administrative rules and oversight, and an ever-expanding body of entitlement legislation to achieve their vision of a just society. They appeal to one set of office seekers, demagogues, and would-be-Caesars who rail against the injustices of the past and stare down those who resist their claims until they too acquiesce with more or less politicking, demagoguery, and splitting of hairs to acquire and maintain their own political status.
This give and take encourages the formation of spectator-citizens, a multitude that tunes in when the “who gets what, when, and how” becomes entertaining or begins to affect their bottom line. Because all things worthy of their political interest and/or attention amount to a zero-sum game, they view politics simply as a game. Most have a favorite team or a team they love to hate. The rest complain that the league has only two teams and hate them both. The game, expertly choreographed, yet poorly played, gives viewers an occasional rush of adrenaline or shudder of fright, but no lasting appreciation for its rules, its purpose, or its excellence – no fundamental desire, that is, to maintain the integrity of the game itself. In such an environment, claims for justice are reduced to “might makes right,” lawfulness is something to be overcome rather than upheld, and prudence makes way for veiled incompetence in the form of feeble recklessness or bold appeasement.
“WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO DO IT”
Where we are is a post-republican regime and whither we are tending is an even farther distance from republican citizenship, statesmanship, and politics. What to do is a matter of reviving republican habits in all three areas of our political life. If we can know what republican citizenship, statesmanship, and politics are, we can work toward making the impartial, exact, and transparent administration of law the “generative fact” of American politics in theory and practice once again.
This site hopes to contribute to this project by stating in precise terms what republican citizenship, statecraft, and politics is (and is not) in six concise lessons on equality, responsibility, honor, justice, lawfulness, and prudence, applied to the politics of our day. We believe that the revitalization of the American regime depends upon the revitalization of our common ability to tell the republican from the unrepublican as easily as we distinguish a Democrat from a Republican – and to recognize that the former skill is vastly more important than the latter.
Perhaps never before have the American people had before them such a clear alternative to their republican heritage – leaders who govern like lords, rather than servants, acting in league with political allies and access seekers beyond the limits of law and custom with the plainly-announced aim of permanently transforming our political and social order. The resulting public discontent is broad and deep. And yet, while it has generated a gut-level disgust with deficit spending, special interest politics, and state-run enterprise, it struggles to define a principled alternative – to find something to love, rather than just something to hate. This alternative, we believe, is the republicanism of Abraham Lincoln and the American founders.
The point of this site is not to promote the cause of one party or ideology, but to make the case for the re-establishment of an American empire of laws. If you are a Democrat, be a republican Democrat – like Thomas Jefferson. If you are a Republican, be a republican Republican – like Abraham Lincoln. If you are conservative, be a republican conservative – like George Washington. And if you are a liberal, be a republican liberal – like James Madison.
Keeping the republic is not a spectator sport but a grave contest that necessitates that we relearn how to think and how to act like republicans. It is our hope that visiting this site will help equip you to contribute to that end.
