The Future of America
Alan Keyes On the Future of America
Alan Keyes On the Future of America
Sunday, May 20, 2007 10:01 PM
The crisis of the republic
An introduction
Alan Keyes
April 17, 2007
The 2008 presidential election cycle is well under way, hurried along by decisions of more populous states like New York and California to move their primaries to February 5, 2008.
For some time now, I have been receiving emails asking my view of the election and the candidates who are competing for nomination, both Democrats and Republicans. Some people have urged me to get involved as I did in 1996 and 2000. Since I ran against him in Illinois in 2004, some of the media have sought my comments on Barack Obama’s campaign and personality. (part 1 continued)
Electoral politics?
Part 2 of ‘The Crisis of the Republic’
Alan Keyes
April 25, 2007
Because our understanding of politics has been corrupted, we cannot discuss what threatens our political sovereignty until we free ourselves from the effects of that corruption. It’s as if we are looking at our political life through lenses or panes of glass that obscure and distort everything we see, including the nature of our own actions.
Thus, though the very possibility of electoral politics derives from moral premises that justify and require self-government, we are led to consider our political choices without regard to those moral premises, as if economic and other material consequences are the only proper subjects of political life.
Why do the American people accept this approach, when it so evidently undermines their claim to political sovereignty? (part 2 continued)
Electoral politics: media and money
Part 3 of ‘The Crisis of the Republic’
Alan Keyes
May 9, 2007
Abraham Lincoln described the American Constitution as “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” He recognized the sovereignty of the people as the essential characteristic of republican self-government.
The people exercise this sovereignty through periodic elections, in which they choose their representatives — the legislators and magistrates who make and carry out the laws. Obviously, the reality of the people’s sovereignty depends on the integrity of the elections, that is, on whether or not they represent a true choice by the people.
If their choice is decided by fraud or deceit, or preemptively determined by some other means, the exercise of sovereign power passes to the successful deceivers and manipulators, whoever they may be. In this event, the outward appearance of elections is simply a way of procuring the people’s submission to the will of their actual rulers, which they more readily offer on account of the delusion that this will is the result of their own decision. (part 3 continued)
The moral basis for the war on terror
Part 4 of ‘The Crisis of the Republic’
Alan Keyes
May 20, 2007
Thanks to the entertainment imperative that drives media coverage of our political affairs, it would come as no surprise if Americans treated elections for political office about as seriously as voting for this week’s “American Idol” contenders.
Of course, the “American Idol” winners won’t be deciding whether to send our troops into combat, or how best to confront the persistent challenge of terrorism. They also won’t have to decide whether to put their careers on the line in order to make sure a region devastated by a hurricane gets timely and effective help coping with the disaster and its aftermath. More often than not, only the life or death of their egos is at stake when entertainers vie for prominence — not the lives of thousands, or even millions of their fellow citizens. (part 4 continued)
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