A Republic, If You Can Keep It*

“I have often and often in the course of Session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.” – Benjamin Franklin

Today a new sun is rising in Iraq. Never before in the long history of the land once known as Mesopotamia have the people awoken to a day where their leaders were freely elected. From the dawn of civilization until the fall of Saddam, countless generations have lived in oppression. Unable to assume “the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them,” they waited and hoped for liberation from the tyranny and fear they had felt for so long. Yesterday the people of Iraq took the same tentative first steps as Americans did so many years ago. The reign of freedom has begun in the world’s newest democracy.

Words can scarcely convey the immense sense of hope we have for the Iraqis on this historic occasion. We have found a brother, long lost in a land where we could hardly expect to find one, to shine the light of freedom and shatter the dark around him. But we also have a profound obligation. The torch is heavy, and the enemies of light are many. It must be the Iraqis who choose to protect and nurture their fledgling republic. It must be the Iraqis who reject violence and tyranny. But it must be the American Soldier who guarantees the Iraqis the right to choose. And we must not lose our will.

Every day we are confronted with negative stories and defeatist attitudes emanating from the NYT and certain members of Congress. Rarely, indeed, do we hear about the successes. Women are free to go outside without an escort. The newspapers are free to report the news. More Iraqi children are in school and learning than at any point under the old regime. Families are enjoying time together at amusement parks in Baghdad and other cities. These are the gifts and legacy of the American Soldier. We must continue to stand side by side with the people of Iraq as their sun rises on this great moment in their history.


* Upon leaving the Constitutional Convention, Franklin was asked by a young man, “what type of government have you given us, republic or monarchy?” Franklin reportedly answered with these words.

The Gravity of The Moment

Regardless of the cause of our being in Iraq, we must not lose sight of one simple fact. Tomorrow Iraqis throughout their country will participate in an activity so rare that fewer than 10% of people who have ever lived on the face of this earth throughout all history have had the chance to do so. Indeed, voting in a true and fair democratic election has scarcely ever occurred in the Middle East.

In October of this year, 60% of the eligible Iraqi voters turned out to exercise their rights, despite threats of violence and reprisal. Even Sunnis, who largely boycotted the January elections, turned out in droves in places like Fallujah, formerly a stronghold of the terrorists. Recognizing that liberty is the hope for their future, they renounced violence and voted. They were forced to walk in some places many miles. They were threatened, attacked, and some were even killed. And yet they voted.

We here in America face no such obstacles. We have easy access to polling locations. We have absentee ballots. We have shuttle services to drive us right to the very door of the voting booth. And yet only 52% of eligible voters bothered to turn out in 2004. It is a safe bet that much of the anti-Iraqi freedom crowd did not.

In his 1961 Inaugural Address, President Kennedy said, “let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, and oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” What has happened to that resolve? What has compelled the far left to abandon the noble principle of spreading freedom and democracy to all corners of the world? Why have we forgotten the lessons of history? In this century alone France, Poland, Germany, Korea, Russia, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and now Iraq are free. Free to choose their own leaders. Free to choose their own destiny. Free to vote. Freedoms secured for them by the blood of Americans and protected by their own blood for their posterity.

Tomorrow, stand in solidarity with the Iraqis on this momentous and solemn occasion, but do not do so by purple ink. That is their right. That is their personal connection to Iraq, their national identity. Do not take this from them. We have much to learn about freedom from the world’s newest democracy. We have not earned the right to color our fingers purple.

Equality of Justice

No state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” (US Constitution, Amendment 14, Section 1)

Nothing in that clause can be construed to suggest that the intent of equal protection was to create equality of outcome. Indeed, the preceding phrase specifically states that all people subject to the laws of the United States and any of the several states shall not be deprived of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law.” That’s it. Equality of justice does not encompass equality of outcome.

The proper roll of government is not to sanitize society and impose some politically correct morality to “protect” hypersensitive people who are predisposed to finding offense due to feelings of entitlement based on such accidents of birth as race or gender. In the most extreme, these feelings are forcing formerly rational government entities to rewrite history to be more “inclusive.” To wit: The Boston Globe has reported that Provincetown, Ma. Selectman (sorry, Selectpersyn) Sarah Peake found it “disturbing” that a painting of the signing of the Mayflower Compact did not include a single woman (sorry, womyn), even though in fact none were part of the signing. Three out of four Selectpersyns voted to remove the painting, which had been in the town hall for 60+ years.

Perhaps Ms. Peake would like to explain how an historical event that took place almost 400 years ago can possibly in any way be harmful to her today. Does she believe that we should cease to display any painting which does not include a census-based mix of white male oppressors and members of properly hyphenated “historically disadvantaged” groups, irrespective of whether or not such members were present in the precise census percentages? And what census should we use, contemporaneous or current?

Can we no longer have the painting, “Signing of the Declaration” on the back of the $2 bill? Can textbooks no longer show da Vinci’s “The Last Supper?” Should we destroy Mt. Rushmore? None of those contain womyn. Do those not offend you, Ms. Peake? What if the painting contained only members of a properly hyphenated group? Should paintings of slaves on a Southern plantation be banned because there are no Hispanics? Ought government to ban photos of suffragettes if none of them are black? Where does it end, Ms. Peake?

A painting/drawing/description of a well-documented historical event has no morality other than what the viewer/listener chooses to ascribe to it. It would be impossible for government to determine a “morally neutral” depiction, as there will always be some hypersensitive yahoo who will choose to be offended. Thus, government will be forced to ban any such painting/drawing/description “for the good of society.” This will place government squarely in the role of arbiter of what is deemed appropriate for the people. That is the textbook definition of censorship and in direct contravention of everything the Founding Fathers (whoops, Founding People) stood for.

It’s not rocket science, Ms. Peake. The proper role of government is to manage the services that are of benefit to society and which the people are less capable or efficient at managing individually. The proper role of a rational human being is to view the historical record through the proper historical context. Government must ensure equal access, not equal outcome.