Who Owns the American Revolution?

Ever since Barack Obama was elected, we’ve been hearing claims that his presidency is illegitimate. Any number of people—including some who should know better—are draping themselves in revolutionary garb. This includes those responsible for the Republicans’ recent Pledge to America, where the authors declare “the governed do not consent.”

The reference, of course, is to the passage in The Declaration of Independence, “’Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” So the Democrats, like George III, are “an arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites”?  At least the pledge doesn’t go so far as to borrow another phrase from Jefferson and accuse Obama of  “absolute Tyranny,” although there have been Tea Partiers who have.

This is a case of an out-of-power party that wants to return to its elite status and is using populist rhetoric to buy off its volatile rightwing.  In his New York Times column today, conservative columnist Ross Douthat calls Pledge to America an attempted seduction.  I’d say that the document is breathtaking in its cynicism except that, given how extreme rhetoric has become in recent years, almost nothing takes our breath away anymore.

Here’s a poem, written by my father, which shows how the left can invoke the founding fathers no less than the right. I quote it, not because I agree with it (while I share his worries, I’m less pessimistic), but rather to make the point that merely invoking the American Revolution is no substitution for serious thought.  Anyone can do it.

The question that people should be asking Pledge for America is whether its policies add up. Does it seriously grapple with the deficit, including the major entitlement programs? Will its health care proposals cover (and pay for) people with preexisting conditions? How will it offset the $4 trillion that extending the Bush tax cuts will cost?  A pledge without such substance is (to borrow a passage from John Wilmot) “senseless stories, idle tales, dreams, whimseys, and no more.”  In a word, bullshit.

Anyway, here’s the poem:

And Now a Message from Our Sponsors

by Scott Bates

We were listening to the evening news,
To all the current pundits’ views,
When suddenly a voice broke through
From when America was new:

“We note the deserts of the moon;
We never thought we’d end so soon.

“We thought a virtuous Democracy
Would save the World from Tyranny,
That finally Equality
Would moderate Plutocracy
And make a Nation built on Good,
On Probity and Brotherhood . . .

“But now we largely find Excess
Of Mercantile Self-Righteousness . . .

“You squandered your Inheritance
Of Equity and Common Sense
On Privilege and Self-Defense—

The Greed of your Developments,
The Madness of your Armaments—

“You sell your soul for Oil and Guns,
For Commerce and for Galleons
For Rhetoric and Orisons,
For Garrisons and Gonfalons—“

Our Founders speak beyond the grave:
“Your world, we think, you will not save.”

The voice fades out; the insects call.

The traffic jams at Monticello
Turn the trees from green to yellow,

And everywhere, the thirsty mall
Springs up, and water tables fall . . .