It’s a favorite parlor game: what would the Founders think of our current government, and in particular, the current budget showdown. Jacob Heilbrunn, in typical liberal derision of the institutions of limited self-government, thinks we should abolish Congress.
More likely, James Madison would not be at all surprised at what is going on. As he wrote in Federalist #37:
“It is a misfortune, inseparable from human affairs, that public measures are rarely investigated with that spirit of moderation which is essential to a just estimate of their real tendency to advance or obstruct the public good; and that this spirit is more apt to be diminished than prompted, by those occasions which require an unusual exercise of it.”
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.