4. James Madison

James Madison
by Garry Wills

I have a tendency to read these books and then put off writing about them for just long enough to forget the details but remember a general impression. I think that makes for less interesting reading for others, and more bizarre pronouncements on my part. But that's what blogs are for, I suppose.

Interesting character, James Madison. I find it fascinating the way the things we associate with 'liberal' or 'conservative' thought so readily these days were really up for grabs in the beginning. There was no short hand for things we take for granted today. Thomas Jefferson, and Madison, were Republicans in some prototypical way, and certainly spoke for states' rights in ways that are similar to today's conservatives. But government wire tapping would certainly offend their sense of personal liberty, as would the suspension of habeas corpus for 'enemy combatants'.

One thing that stood out to me in this story of Madison's presidency is the role of falsified intelligence in the lead up to the war with England in 1812. How striking given the circumstances of our current debacle in Iraq. But it points to a certain human nature - not natural to every human, but common enough to call a human nature - to make up one's mind to attack an enemy, and then see every experience through that perspective. To be so certain you're right that you see evidence confirming your position in everything. The conspiracy theories Madison got ahold of and used to energize the US against Britain were proved fakes before the war was even fully underway, but by then it didn't matter. The 'proof' appealed to the fear and insecurity in people and took hold of their imagination.

After September 11, I certainly felt more vulnerable. I also felt naive for believing that sort of thing could never happen here. And arrogant for thinking we couldn't possibly be harmed by unsophisticated people who didn't have our resources or equipment or intelligence. And a hunt for criminals in Afghanistan seemed to make sense at the time. Now here we are 5 years later, no closer to finding Osama bin Laden, and spending billions of dollars a month destroying and rebuilding a country on the oher side of the planet that happens to have a lot of oil underneath it.

Madison and Jefferson both liked the idea of a weak executive and a weak federal government until they actually sat in the president's seat and realized that if we were to be a unified republic, we needed a unified vision. That vision began leading to western expansion, a theme emerging even more in my next reading on Monroe - but an early American sense of entitlement to the world that has not passed away in the past 200 years.

We seem to be looking for our soul again, and I'm hopeful that this time it might be built less on domination and more on reconciliation.