Well, that’s quite a speech. I do like the standard of “then what?” While Senator Biden has had his share of verbal mistakes in his life, he, like everyone, is making political PROPOSITIONS, propositions which can be judged independently of the person who provides them. With that in mind, I wonder what people think of the questions raised?
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March 19, 2007 at 2:46 pm |
I’m a big fan of the Biden plan, myself, and he makes a fantastic case in this video for something like it. I’m still not clear whether the current bill, or any piece of legislation, can effectively force the president to actualize a federation plan.
I guess we need a political solution here at home.
March 21, 2007 at 10:52 am |
I agree. I am once again reminded of one of the most interesting books I have read in recent years (and an inspiration for my dissertation): David C. Hendrickson’s (2003) Peace Pact: The Lost World of the American Founding.
The “lost world,” ironically enough, is that the Americans discovered / invented modern federalism as a solution to their own deep sectional divisions. The belief repeatedly articulated by the founders was that something like their federal system was the only alternative to the “dreaded specters of anarchy and ‘universal empire’” The logic was exactly as Biden said. In such situations of deep disagreement, if a federal system is not forged (“coming together to stay apart,” as Hendrickson describes it), then civil war will be avoided only by either the repression by a hegemon (i.e. Sadam) or an external empire (i.e. us), or by one side wiping-out the other(s). The American experience demonstrated that there is a “third way” between the Hobbesian extremes; and our federal solution prevented civil war for nearly 80 years. Not bad.
It’s always sad when we don’t, as Biden said, learn from the lessons of history. It is especially sad when the unheeded lesson is fundamental to our own history.