Difference between revisions of "Notes:BC1.CWintro"

Revision as of 20:48, 8 February 2015

Glenn and I would like to help shift our country's political momentum.

• We took an ineffectual stab at doing that in the 6 months leading up to the 2012 election
• It was a website that Glenn still maintains. Cogently written, but prior to the election we probably reached about 20 people.

Three motivating factors:

1. Political division that has become more strident because it is being fed by people who profit by it.
2. Americans are increasingly out of touch with the reasons for our success as a nation and as the world's dominant economy.
3. Well intentioned (as well as cynical) government policy that has damaging unintended consequences.

And these things feed our decline.

• We are Coming Apart and few understand what is happening, why, or what to do about it.
• Today's youth is 8 or 9 generations away from our country's beginnings and do not understand American exceptionalism--though this was likely true to some degree of every generation since the middle of the 19th century.

When I was a kid, we could recite parts of The Declaration, but never thought about what it meant. It was not something profound, it was homework.

• The evolution of English liberty and constitution and how it spun off the United States is not understood

And that is a fascinating story.

• Rule of Law is not understood by many - including myself not so long ago. This is the same as saying that our Constitution is not understood by many.
• Democracy is not understood.

France is a democracy.

The United States is a constitutional republic with democratic input.

• Economic freedom is neither understood nor appreciated.
• Capitalism is understood by very few--including economists. (Likewise for socialism.)
• We want people in America to either remember or discover what made America exceptional--we want immigrants to have a better understanding of what made America the place they want to be.
• The spirit and appreciation of the ideas and history that can bring us back to a reverence for liberty has to be captured in a reasonably concise manner and in a form that does not require plowing through a library full of profound books.

• We wanted a way to educate, inform, discuss these things and we thought that the web was the best way to reach a large audience.

We want to build some political momentum for the real meaning of liberalism.

• We don't want to just lecture.

• And we're not smart enough or energetic enough to do it all ourselves anyway.
• We needed a way that others--anyone--can contribute information and participate in the education and discussion.
• We needed a concise Wikipedia for American civics.

Before the 2012 election we had stood up a website to discuss issues. It was cogent, but not effective.
We had the idea of putting together another website aimed more at addressing those things I just listed than in attacking specific issues--though it contains a forum for that as well.

• The website purports to be non partisan--one of the rules being that advocacy for political parties or candidates is off limits.

• It does admit to a dedication to liberty, an admiration of the founding principles of the U.S., and promising to discuss what that means, etc.

A central part of this website is a discussion of the Constitution, and I set out to sit through the Hillsdale on-line lectures Constitution 101 to get smart enough to write a series of articles.

• Then it occurred to me . . . .

CW would be a long time in coming and somewhat narrow in its perspective.

• and we need help--but not just any help.

• We need the help of people who have an understanding, an appreciation, and an enthusiasm for what we are trying to capture

and an ability to write about it.