Mark West
Chess and the Constitution
By Mark West
Watching the debate over health care reform disintegrate into partisan skullduggery troubles me. Our federal government has no clue how to do their duty and it couldn't be more prevalent than it is now.
Town hall meetings are supposed to be an exchange of ideas and viewpoints. Instead, we the people see them as a place to vent frustration, and our elected officials see them as a venue for persuasion. Unfortunately, this leads to talking at each other instead of conversing with one another.
Why are we embroiled in such heated division? Allow me to explain.
Chess is a game of difficulty and strategy by design. Guidelines are in place governing the game board, the arrangement and movement of pieces, and how to achieve victory. A typical game is generally made up of three phases: early, mid, and end game.
Early game = opening movements. Mid game = the battle for board control. End game = the closing moves to capture the king.
Our founding fathers were driven by a set of principles, an end game strategy, as they designed our republic. Considering their precarious situation, a new union of sovereign states, they desired to prevent the threat of tyranny and division within that union.
A limited federal authority is the prescription they wrote. Our fathers, aware of the danger posed by a powerful and centralized government, designed a nation with certain "pieces" having specific duties, realizing that even the most powerful pieces need limits and accountability.
We see the division in our nation for one simple reason...our federal government has overstepped it constitutional limits! Our fathers tried to prevent this zero-sum game in which elections become more vicious with each cycle.
We should not fear losing an election, but we do because we know such a loss will inevitably be extended to the loss of our rights and property as the winners (majority) impose their will on the unwilling losers (minority). This reeks of democracy!
A republic protects the rights and property of the minority, regardless of the will of the majority. However, democracy is mob rule, all you need is a majority to take your neighbors house!
Hence, our divisions will find resolution when our government restricts itself to the limits of our constitution and resigns itself from playing one group against another for political gain.
We keep them accountable with our vote!
© Mark West
August 26, 2009
Watching the debate over health care reform disintegrate into partisan skullduggery troubles me. Our federal government has no clue how to do their duty and it couldn't be more prevalent than it is now.
Town hall meetings are supposed to be an exchange of ideas and viewpoints. Instead, we the people see them as a place to vent frustration, and our elected officials see them as a venue for persuasion. Unfortunately, this leads to talking at each other instead of conversing with one another.
Why are we embroiled in such heated division? Allow me to explain.
Chess is a game of difficulty and strategy by design. Guidelines are in place governing the game board, the arrangement and movement of pieces, and how to achieve victory. A typical game is generally made up of three phases: early, mid, and end game.
Early game = opening movements. Mid game = the battle for board control. End game = the closing moves to capture the king.
Our founding fathers were driven by a set of principles, an end game strategy, as they designed our republic. Considering their precarious situation, a new union of sovereign states, they desired to prevent the threat of tyranny and division within that union.
A limited federal authority is the prescription they wrote. Our fathers, aware of the danger posed by a powerful and centralized government, designed a nation with certain "pieces" having specific duties, realizing that even the most powerful pieces need limits and accountability.
We see the division in our nation for one simple reason...our federal government has overstepped it constitutional limits! Our fathers tried to prevent this zero-sum game in which elections become more vicious with each cycle.
We should not fear losing an election, but we do because we know such a loss will inevitably be extended to the loss of our rights and property as the winners (majority) impose their will on the unwilling losers (minority). This reeks of democracy!
A republic protects the rights and property of the minority, regardless of the will of the majority. However, democracy is mob rule, all you need is a majority to take your neighbors house!
Hence, our divisions will find resolution when our government restricts itself to the limits of our constitution and resigns itself from playing one group against another for political gain.
We keep them accountable with our vote!
© Mark West
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