Why Vote? To keep a republic

As the delegates were leaving the Pennsylvania State House that September day in 1787, having just written the U.S. Constitution, a woman approached the venerable Dr. Franklin and asked what sort of government they were proposing. He answered, "A republic, if your can keep it."

It's as simple as that. We can only keep our republic by exercising our right to vote and the corollary is informing ourselves about the candidates and the issues. Three thoughts come to mind:

A nation that expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization … expects what never was and never will be. - Thomas Jefferson

Liberty & Learning lean on each other for their mutual and surest support. – James Madison

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people...They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. - Thomas Jefferson

It's as simple as that...inform yourself and vote. Yes it's tough with restricted hours or Sandy's devastation. Yes, the weather can be bad or the lines long or the choices difficult or...

If you don't vote, you have no voice and NO RIGHT TO WHINE! That's right. You can't go on and on about what's wrong with the "government" if you don't participate. No excuses.

In the '90s I was working in St. Petersburg, Russia when they held their first free election. I went with my host to the polls -- a high school gym. It was exciting and brought a lump to my throat. My friend was casting a vote in an independent election for the first time. I don't know how she voted - for reform or a return to the old regime. In the end, the important thing is to cast your ballot.

In a republic, we then accept the result. We don't always like the result and sometimes would have preferred a different outcome. Every election is about the future of the republic. Informed voting is the only way to keep our republic.
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(c) Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
Author, Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers (Check out the special election day offer)

Vote agin' 'em

That was my Aunt Letha's advice when it came to the democratic process...As every election neared she repeated her maxim: "I never voted FOR anybody in my life...I always vote agin' 'em!" She'd love the Tea Party and all the anti-incumbent ballyhoo in the media. Despite the fact she had a nice government job with the IRS she had a rather jaded view of government officials at every level.

Like many people, she had her own way of enforcing term limits -- throw the bums out.

At this point many months before the November elections, that's what lots of folks are saying and doing in state primaries. And in a democratic republic that certainly beats violence, coups, and take overs. I just returned from Lagos, Nigeria. While I was there, the president died. There was a peaceful transition as the acting president was sworn in. Many people breathed a sigh of relief...There had been military take overs in the past and few peaceful transitions. In Thailand opposition to the incumbent precipitated violence and death so votin' agin' 'em seems a better solution.

But is it? Let's get a little historical perspective on the situation. I just spent some time in Philadelphia and had a chance to visit Independence Hall and wander through the historic district thinking about the Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutional Convention, and the U.S. Constitution. It got me to thinking about being agin' 'em.

Of course the representatives that assembled in the 1770s and 80s were agin' taxation without representation, the Townsend Acts, Stamp Act, Intolerable Acts, and all the rest. They believed their rights as British citizens were being violated. Their protests did turn violent at times although it's easier to remember civil disobedience like the Boston Tea Party. Right from the beginning there were those who were ready to break with England and those who wanted to mend the growing rift. Tempers flared on both sides as the definition of patriot shifted until it solidified once war broke out. Yes, the revolutionary generation was agin' many things.

However, they were the first to understand that being agin' the British wasn't enough. They also had to be FOR something. What that something was for them was the ideal of a republic -- a government that represented the people and was agreed to by the people. When the 55 representatives showed up to represent 12 states (Rhode Island refused to come) in 1787 to write a new constitution, they were ready to define in detail what they were for. Gouverneur Morris, representing Pennsylvania, encapsulated their goals succinctly in the Preamble.

The success the framers had both in working to get the new constitution ratified and then to establish the new government was based on the fact that they stood on a solid platform of ideals, pragmatism, and political savvy.

James Madison, who played such a crucial role in the constitutional efforts was a career politician. From his first public office in his early twenties he served in representative body after representative body, seldom being out of office for any length of time. He eventually reached the executive branch serving as Secretary of State and then president for two terms...even though he presided over an unpopular war (1812.) He was an "insider" who sometimes voted with his next election in mind instead of the "greater good." Although generally thought of as a "conservative" by today's litmus tests he might be vilified, especially for his adamant views (and voting record) on the strict separation of church and state. His views and votes on slavery would also get him in hot water today. But at the end of the day, he believed, as did many of the founders, that public service, politics, was an honorable and necessary profession.

So as dearly as I loved my Aunt Letha, and she was a treasure, I have to respectfully disagree with her. In every election, I look at candidates of every stripe and try to figure out what they are standing for, what they will try to accomplish, and what ideals they will work to put into practice. Do they have the character and stamina of a Madison...if so, I'll vote for 'em.

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Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President, Advantage Leadership, Inc. Author, Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers

Who is closer to Jefferson, Obama or McCain?

A friend asked me this question: Who is closer to Thomas Jefferson, Obama or McCain?
A loaded question because I didn't want to favor one candidate or the other publicly.

But the question set me thinking.
Obama certainly has Jefferson's gift of language and eloquence. He shares his cool demeanor and laid-back elegance.

McCain has many positions that are closer to Jefferson such as smaller government and lower taxes. Jefferson hated to give speeches and preferred more intimate settings for discourse much like McCain.

On the other hand, if Jefferson were able to overcome his prejudices, he might enjoy sitting with Obama on his mountain top at Montecello discussing philosophy and ideas. If McCain were at that dinner party, they might swap war stories and Jefferson would recount his narrow escape from the British when they were in hot pursuit.

Of course ahistorical speculation is always fun...
But thinking about Jefferson and his ideas on government got me to thinking about the election of 1800. If you watched the HBO series on John Adams you may remember it was bitter and brutal. In fact, it ranks up there as one of the dirtiest campaigns in our history. We seem to think that we invented dirty tricks in more modern times but human nature being what it is, nasty elections are nothing new.

During George Washington's second term, Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State, began to form a faction that he called the Republicans. (Now before you get too confused, this party morphed into the Democratic Republicans and then into the Democratic Party. Today's Republican Party formed in the 1850s to oppose slavery and preserve the union, but that's another story.)

As Jefferson began organizing his party to take on John Adams and his Federalist Party he did it behind the scenes. He paid a journalist to start a newspaper to attack the Federalists (and put him on the State department payroll!) He fired up his buddy James Madison to go after his hated rival Alexander Hamilton and implored him to take out his pen and cut him to shreds.

So the election of 1800 was an unremitting mudslinging bar fight. If we think the media are biased today, go back and read the dueling broadsides, pamphlets and newspapers of 1800. When the dust settled Jefferson and Adams were tied and the whole thing was thrown into the House of Representatives. The House went through many, many ballots when one representative finally threw his vote to Jefferson.

Adams tried to pack the Supreme Court and make other midnight appointments before he lit out for home in the wee hours of the morning rather than have to see the power of the presidency pass to Jefferson.

They remained alienated for many years until a mutual friend got them to make up. For the years they had remaining, they renewed what had been a close friendship during the Revolution. They wrote a wonderful set of letters discussing everything from crop rotation to the fate of the nation. On July 4, exactly 50 years after the Continental Congress passed Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, they both died.

You just can't make this stuff up. History is so much bolder than fiction.

So the answer is a toss up...Both Obama and McCain are Jefferson's heirs because they both share his vision of a republic where everyone is equal and free to pursue life, liberty and happiness. So choose a candidate that fits your notion of what that means and vote...after all, it's citizen involvement that sustains a republic and that's what Jefferson and the rest of the founders wanted for us.