October 22, 2010

If Past Is Prologue

The rules of the game determine the nature of the outcome. That's as true in governance as it is everywhere else. When the rules of governance — the Constitution — decree, in the abstract, that a wealthy minority shall control national policy, then that's what happens. Never mind that the rules were developed around a polity, a society, and an economy that no longer exist. Same rules, new players, same result. To help clear things up I turned to Dr. George William Van Cleve, author of A Slaveholders' Union: Slavery, Politics, and the Constitution in the Early American Republic. It's a brilliant and extraordinarily important book. Thanks, George. Total runtime fifty eight minutes. Be subversive! [Transcript, here.]