Monday, January 17, 2011

Nuts on Right, on Left and Just Plain Nuts

“By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community”.
“The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.”
The Federalist NO. 10 - Thursday, November 22, 1787 [James Madison]

Every American should have a grasp of our founding fathers vision for our republic and a great place to start is the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers written during the birth of our nation. Federalist Number 10 deals with “factions”, which means people with different ideas about how things should be. Sound familiar, like it might apply to today? You bet and today’s news just highlights it.

A right wing nut, Brett Reese, is airing an editorial four times daily - up from two - on his station KELS-FM 104.7. He is unapologetic that portions of the editorial that call King a "plastic god," a "sexual degenerate," and "an America hating communist". The Mountain States Anti-Defamation League has asked Reese to stop broadcasting the editorial. The Greeley school board passed a resolution last week supporting the holiday and calling the editorial "inflammatory and detrimental to our district and community." The vote came after Reese walked out of the meeting.

A left wing nut, James Eric Fuller, was arrested after shouting “You’re dead!” at Tucson Tea Party spokesman Trent Humphries, said Pima County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jason Ogan. Fuller was shot in the knee and back Jan. 8 when a gunman opened fire at Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords event that day. Fuller linked the shooting to conservative leaders associated with the tea party, including Sarah Palin, Fox News commentator Glenn Beck and Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle. “It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target,” Fuller said.

The act of Jared Loughner is fairly simple to discern if you just look at the facts; he is just plain nuts. The news media is having a hay-day with his story though. In our republic it is expected that we will have varying ideas but as Madison alludes to, the voice of the people pronounced by a body of representatives is more conformable to the interest of the community. He argues large republic against a small republic for the choice of “fit characters” to represent the public’s voice. In a large republic where the number of voters and candidates is greater, the probability to elect competent representatives is broader.1 The effects of the Tea Party movement is exactly what Madison refers to. Given time and with a majority of the people understanding the principals our country is founded upon, it can heal and work for the common good the government is meant to preserve. “We the People” need to be the characters our founding fathers developed this country for so ALL the nuts will stay in the can where they belong. What it all boils down to is our republic works only when the people understand the ethics, philosophical integrity and religious foundation the founding fathers based it on. I finish with this quote I used before but it fits here best.

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John Adams – 1798

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_No._10#The_question_of_faction

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