pinions of buddy don: a tale of two georges

i jes red a book name of Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner, witch this volume is a cundensed vershun of his four-volume wurk on the father of our nayshun. on page 210 of that book, thays a discusshun of washingtons deesire that the constitushun be ratified. whenever i red this, i had to thank how far we have fallen frum the george that defeated King George III of England to the george that wood becum (has dun alreddy becum?) King George I of America:

The debate over ratification elicited a flood of pamphlets on both sides. Washington read them all. He became convinced that the arguments of the opponents, based mostly on regionalism and an identification of strong government with tyranny, were hysterical when they were not self-serving. The pamphlets supporting the Constitution, particularly The Federalist written by Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay, persuaded Washington that "the Constitution is really in its formation a government of the people; that is to say, a government in which all power is derived from, and, at stated periods, reverts to them; and that, in its operation it is purely a government of laws, made and executed by the fair substitutes of the people alone. . . . It is clear to my conception that no government before introduced among mankind ever contained so many checks and such efficacious restraints to prevent it from degenerating into any species of oppression."

as i red this, i wuz also reeminded of sumthin Ben Franklin wuz spozed to have sed at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787:

QUOTATION: “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

to putt it altogether, heres the final pargraff frum a articull name of A Republic, If You Can Keep It by Richard R. Beeman, Ph.D.:

If there is a lesson in all of this it is that our Constitution is neither a self-actuating nor a self-correcting document. It requires the constant attention and devotion of all citizens. There is a story, often told, that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: "A republic, if you can keep it." The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely dependent upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health.

ye gut to keep in mind how them early amurkins lack franklin n washington wuz librulls n proud of it. the cunservatives wuz them that figgerd the colonies orta remain loyal to the crown of england.

witch, thats kindly lack the cunservatives of today, them that wood give up our liberty to have a unitary president -- in other wurds, a dicktater.

n the point is, the fite today kin include them cunservatives that kin rise frum partisan to patriot -- n not the patriot of the so-called patriot act (witch ifn ye wonta real skeer bout how bad thangs has gut fer our republick, read that book by Gleen Greenwald name of How Would A Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok)

tiz a short n simple tale, thatn of them two georges:

• the furst george, washington, bleeved that all power cums frum n reverts to the people.


• the wurst george, w. bush, bleeves that all power blongs to the president n the people must be sum kinda enemy that needs to be spied on n locked up without due process ifn he suspecks em.

tiz up to each n ever one of us, ifn we bleeve in havin a gummint of the people, not a dicktatership, to be informed, active, and willin to fite back. the real enemy aint that bunch of evil hateful terrsts name of al qaeda, them that caint even git a gummint a'goin, them that wuznt never as dangerus as the ussr or nazi germany or ww2 japan. the real enemy is a president that wont do his sworn duty: to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.


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