Friday, October 8, 2010
The Impressiveness of Publius!
Mike Rappaport
Wow, these explanations from Federalist 62 of phenomena in our world are quite impressive. Read this Clayton Cramer post. Really, a must read. (Hat tip: Instapundit).
https://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2010/10/the-impressiveness-of-publiusmike-rappaport.html
Comments
I don't think this was my view, although certainly it would be held by others. I believe (and have long believed) that the Federalist had impressive insights about government, although of course they made some mistakes and some new ideas have made some contributions. If we are comparing the Federalist to more modern books, the Federalist will beat 95 percent of them.
Posted by: Mike Rappaport | Oct 9, 2010 2:02:45 PM
Well, get me a reading list of that 5% and I'll get started.
Posted by: james wilson | Oct 9, 2010 9:42:51 PM
The Federalist Papers remind us that gridlock is a feature, not a bug. Checks and balances, separation of powers and reserved rights are supposed to make things not happen. The idea is that we may have a strong union for foreign policy and national defense, without the fear that majority factions might tell us how to run our plantations.
Posted by: Lou Gots | Oct 10, 2010 9:15:36 AM
It surprised me to learn several years ago that the Federalist represented ideas somewhat antiquated by the passage of time, and less evolved than our elevated understanding of things afforded us by the passage of time and experience. That was the general opinion at your school.
I always found these old boys to be far more sophisticated than we are. They knew that what they were really attempting to defend against was in themselves.
Posted by: james wilson | Oct 9, 2010 8:54:31 AM