The week of June 23rd, 1788 was a defining week for the United States of America. The old rivals - James Madison and Patrick Henry - were at each other's throats in Virginia, arguing passionately and sometimes viscously about "that paper on the table," the proposed Constitution.
The argument centered on liberty, and whose ideas could best guarantee that the new government being formed under the Constitution would best protect the liberties of the people.
Henry's followers feared the new government's powers and wanted a bill of rights attached to the Constitution before approving it. Madison felt that the enumerated powers given to the new government limited the potential of the government to invade the liberties of the people.
Everyone agreed that the Constitution held the promise of providing economic growth, international security and domestic tranquility. But those opposed to its immediate ratification felt it also held the potential for great abuse of the liberties of the people.
With all this high talk about liberty, at a critical time in our history, one might assume that these arguments were held in the luxurious quiet of peace and domestic tranquility. But they weren't. To the contrary; the situation in the new nation, in its twelfth year of independence, was far from secure. The treasury was broke, indebted after fighting an extended war with the greatest empire on earth. And the Americans were not sure that the British were through with their designs on their former American colonies. Our merchant trade was insecure. The Native Americans, the Indian tribes whom the new Americans treated as enemy savages rather than neighbors, were being displaced and threatened those replacing them on the frontiers. The argument over slavery was not a settled issue and imbued itself in every debate on the Constitution , and threatened to tear the new nation apart. There were insurrections and rebellions in many sections of the country. It was not a good time for the new nation.
Yet despite these true and present dangers to their safety and to the security of the union, the men in Virginia argued not about how much more power was needed be given to the new government, but to the contrary, how best to protect the liberties of the people against the power the government already had, and what power it might take for itself in the future
How different our leaders are today.
Today we live in a relatively much less hostile world, even with the amorphous threat of terrorism hanging over our heads. Our ability to protect ourselves is much greater now than it was before. And yet in contrast to those days in 1788, we hear the Congress arguing about how much of the people's liberties they can take away, to be replaced by more and more government power.
And yet, we still call ourselves Americans.
How much longer the destruction of our liberty will continue and we will still be recognizable as Americans is an open question, to be settled by history, certainly not by one caught in the midst of the transition.
We no longer have a majority of Congressmen whose concerns are for our liberties, but politicians who are concerned about being re-elected, and how to least offend those with deep pockets.
We now have a Democratic party that scorns Russ Feingold when he stands alone on the floor of the Senate defending our liberties.
Joe Biden tells us not to take Russ too seriously when he threatens to filibuster the USA PATRIOT Act, that he's only frustrated. Well, yes Joe - Russ Feingold is frustrated. We are all frustrated. We are all pissed off.
The men of old didn't put their finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing. They wind was liberty itself, and it was that which pushed them forward.
Consider this:
I just spoke with the Democratic National Party and they told me I needed a pollster to tell me what issues were important to my district, so that I wouldn't waste time with things people in my district didn't care about - so as to be able to stay on message.
Well, I don't need to put my finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. Anyone who needs a damn poll to tell them what is wrong with this country, what is bothering the people of this nation, has no right running for Congress.
The message is America, and what it stands for.
I am not going to go over the laundry list of problems we face, from the Invasion of Iraq to health care. Anyone can recite a list of issues.
What we Democrats must do is put on paper not only a platform, but create an agenda that will clearly define how that platform will be implemented.
I am tired of hearing Democrats screaming about "taking back power," "about winning again," It is not about winning. It is not about taking back power. It is about leadership.
We Democrats are good people. We are intelligent people. We are caring people. When we put on paper a detailed plan on how we are going to right the wrongs of this nation and bring this country back to it core beliefs, back to its creed of liberty above all, the American people will follow us. They will follow us as we lead them back to Washington.
Politics is all about serving the best interests of all of the American people, not the special interests of just the few.
Let us begin to speak clearly about leadership, not about taking back power, not about winning again. These are the words of political machines, not political parties made up of citizens.
We have much work to do. I will support any effort to create a platform with an attached agenda that will lay out how that platform will be implemented.
As my campaign develops, I will be fleshing out the issues page on my website with considered proposals. Anyone with an already developed idea who would like to have me consider posting it as part of my agenda please forward what you have to me and I will study it. And conversely, once my issues are detailed on my website, anyone who would like to share my thoughts in their campaign, please feel free to do so.
One key to this campaign is that we form a cohesive movement with an agenda.
I personally would rather create an agenda for the American people than continue to bash those now in Washington. They are merely the politics of today. And times change. As I was reminded many years ago by an astute professor, "history hasn't ended."