As today's originalists sit idle while the world's richest man and his minor billionaire patron run the US government with no regard for checks or balances, it's worth remembering that in 1787 the fairly conservative Noah Webster noted that great accumulations of wealth could destroy a republic. - ThreadSky

sethcotlar.bsky.social • 44 days ago

As today's originalists sit idle while the world's richest man and his minor billionaire patron run the US government with no regard for checks or balances, it's worth remembering that in 1787 the fairly conservative Noah Webster noted that great accumulations of wealth could destroy a republic.

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millifisense.bsky.social•44 days ago

Yeah it’s not that hard Democrats. Just the no more billionaires party would probably be enough of a message

sethcotlar.bsky.social•44 days ago

There's no need to overstate how much of an economic radical Webster was (because he certainly wasn't), but all the same he understood that property and power were intimately bound up together, and republics were at risk when property and power became too concentrated in a few hands.

sethcotlar.bsky.social•44 days ago

Here's the full text. Webster was hardly the only member of the founding generation to think that great concentrations of wealth would lead to a more oligarchical form of government that would threaten individual liberties and republican self-governance. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/a-citizen-of-america-an-examination-into-the-leading-principles-of-america/

sethcotlar.bsky.social•44 days ago

Anyway, I wrote a whole chapter about this in my first book many years ago. It's usually a fool's errand to ask "what would the founding generation say," but I feel pretty comfortable saying they'd find Musk's current role to be outlandishly inappropriate.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tom_Paine_s_America/oRgIWcDKcycC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA115&printsec=frontcover

thegreatduggo.bsky.social•43 days ago

I think it would be more like "fucking egregious and unconstitutional!"

sethcotlar.bsky.social•44 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/ositanwanevu.bsky.social/post/3lkspr33cak2y

marcusdaniel62.bsky.social•43 days ago

I think we need a new "Common Sense." A revolutionary declaration. But remember this is the country that despised him, denied him a war pension, and buried him without honor.

spiderandme.bsky.social•44 days ago

#ItsTheInequalityStupid

b9n10nt.bsky.social•44 days ago

property follows dose effects

sdbwarnedyou.bsky.social•43 days ago

We’re certainly “assuming some other form” alright.

johnbrownbread.bsky.social•44 days ago

Yup. As you know, Classical Republicans, going back to the Renaissance all held the belief that excessive wealth and inequality would destroy the republic. Machiavelli even said that the country should be wealthy, but the people themselves should be poor.

johnbrownbread.bsky.social•44 days ago

Excessive wealth corrupts the soul and leads the government to rule in the private interest rather than the public interest.

johnbrownbread.bsky.social•44 days ago

I find it so maddening that I, as an anarchist, understand more about these things than many of these “originalists” who claim to love the state and the constitution so much. Thank you for talking more about Classical Republican theory.

johnbrownbread.bsky.social•44 days ago

Other than Seth’s focusing on Paine, if anyone is interested, the best book out right now that I know giving an overview of Classical Republican & Neo-Republican theory is “The Well-Ordered Republic” by Frank Lovett. — Not about the Republican Party, but about the political theory of “republicanism”

patrickneithard.bsky.social•44 days ago

📌

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