What Does Benjamin Franklin Have to do With the Current Political Environment?

 

Like me, are you disenchanted with and discouraged by the body politic of our country now? Are you weary of the self-serving conniving machinations exhibited by the political leaders of both parties? Are you frustrated that we can’t seem to come together and agree on any idea or action that will impact the future of our country in a positive way? Does it feel like this is something new that is causing our once unified country to come apart at the seams, spawning what seems to be a bleak future?

If so, think again. As published in “American History” magazine, here is an excerpt from a letter written by Benjamin Franklin to a friend in France, just after participating in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It seems as though Franklin could be living today when he wrote:

“We must not expect that our new government may be formed as a game of chess played by a skillful hand, without fault. The players of our game are so many, their ideas so different, their prejudices so strong and so various, and their particular interests independent of the general seeming so opposite that not a move can be made that is not contested; the numerous objections confound the understanding; so the wisest must agree to some unreasonable things, so that reasonable things of more consequence may be obtained, and thus chance has its share in many of the determinations, so that the play is more like a game of dice.”

I don’t know about you, but after reading Franklin’s letter expressing his concerns about the functionality and longevity of a republican form of government, it gives me some comfort that what we are facing in government today is what we have survived for the past 235 years and can, if we have the fortitude, survive for at least the next 235 years.      

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