Where are the statesmen?

The ever-irascible Kim du Toit, being under considerable pressure from the concerns of everyday life, has taken a break from his regular prodigious blogging schedule until such time as the situation improves. He still posts occasionally, but he has also introduced his "Best of" feature where his blogging software randomly presents one or more posts from the past. Today's is titled, "Where Is Washington?"

When asked how long the Republic would last, James Russell Lowe famously remarked, “The Republic will endure as long as the ideals and principles of the Founders remain dominant in the hearts of the people.”

Someone else less-famously remarked that the framers of the United States Constitution had it easy when they were drawing up that wonderful document: they had the august and brooding presence of George Washington sitting in the room with them while they wrote it. And if at any time an ignoble urge might come upon them, they had only to think of Washington’s frown of approbation for that urge to be curbed—and they had the certain knowledge that whatever they produced would eventually have to be subjected to the stern scrutiny of Washington’s unbending honor.

Where is Washington now? It is clear that people in government need some kind of moral compass, some kind of final arbiter, in order that their machinations be kept in check, and that the baser side of their natures be cowed at the thought of awful displeasure.

Where is Washington? He's probably spinning in his grave so fast that, were we to connect him to a generator, we could probably light all of Washington DC with its output. The last president we had which even approached Washington in stature was Reagan. George W. Bush tries, and he sometimes succeeds, but he simply isn't of the same caliber.

This country has so lost the vision of the Founders that I sometimes despair of it ever correcting itself. There are many things that need to be done if we are to return to the type of nation that was forged over two centuries ago. Here are just a few:

• Eliminate the current system of punitive taxation of individuals and corporations. Replace the income tax with a consumption tax, whether it's a national sales tax (i.e. the Fair Tax) or a value-added tax. There are good arguments for either. (Ideally the Federal government would not require a tax on the people of any kind, but fund itself solely through tariffs as it did originally. However, in today's world that's merely wishful thinking.)


• Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution and return the responsibility for selecting Senators to the legislatures of the various states. The original intent was for the House of Representatives to represent the people of the states, and for the Senate to represent the states as entities in their own right. No longer beholden to special interest groups, other than the states, they would be far less inclined to pass legislation that panders to such groups.


• Reign in the judiciary so that it once again acts as the arbiter of the law and not its creator. The Supreme Court must only determine whether or not laws are contrary to the Constitution, and not make new law where none was before.

I could go on and on but these three things would make a large difference. What changes would you suggest?