Polly Dogood

A Proposal for Holding One's Nose

Wherein the Author recommends to her Readers a Vote they may not enjoy, upon the Example of her Grandpapa, who signed a Constitution he did not entirely approve.

To the Readers of this Publick Blog,

I receive a great many Letters, and the most common of them says this: "Mrs. Dogood, I agree with every Word you write about the present Congress. But I do not like the Democrat."

Very well. Neither, on the 17th of September 1787, did my Grandpapa Franklin like the Constitution.

He was eighty-one Years old, troubled by the Gout and the Stone, and on many Days carried to the State House in a Sedan Chair. After four Months of Argument he rose, or rather had his Speech read for him, and confessed it plainly: "I confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present." And then he signed it. "I consent, Sir, to this Constitution," he said, "because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best." He asked every Delegate who still had Objections to "doubt a little of his own Infallibility," and sign as well.

The Republic you live in was founded on a held Nose. I propose we honour the Tradition.

❦   ❦   ❦

What the Framers built

The Framers did not trust good Men to govern well. They had met too many Men. So they built a Machine that would work even when the Men in it were not good, by setting them against one another. Mr. Madison put it in six Words in the fifty-first Federalist: "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition." Congress would guard its Powers of the Purse, the Sword and the Inquiry jealously, because its Members would want those Powers for themselves, and the President would not be able to take them.

It was a beautiful Machine. It had one Flaw, and the Founders saw it coming.

Mr. Adams wrote from Amsterdam in 1780: "There is nothing I dread So much, as a Division of the Republick into two great Parties, each arranged under its Leader, and concerting Measures in opposition to each other." General Washington warned in his Farewell Address that "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism."

Here is the Flaw. When the Congress belongs to the President's Party, and the Party belongs to the President, Ambition no longer counteracts Ambition. It salutes, kneels, and bows its Head in shameful Acquiescence. The Senate does not guard the Purse; it hands it over. The House does not inquire; it excuses. The Machine still stands, every Gear in its Place, and none of them turns.

You have seen it. Tariffs laid by Proclamation went unchallenged by Congress until the Supreme Court had to remind everyone whose Power that was. War made from the Air without a Declaration, and the Senate declined twice, by a Vote or two, to stop it. Inspectors General dismissed, Soldiers sent into Cities, the Department of Justice set upon the President's Critics, and a Congress that did nothing, because the Congress is his. I have catalogued all this at length elsewhere, in my Letter upon Small Kings, and I shall not repeat it here.

What divided Government has done

I am told that divided Government means Gridlock, and nothing gets done. The Record says otherwise. It says that under divided Government nothing gets done by one Man alone, which is a very different Thing.

In 1948 a Democratic President and a Republican Congress passed the Marshall Plan, and rebuilt a Continent.

In 1956 a Republican President and a Democratic Congress built the Interstate Highways. If you drove anywhere this Week, you drove on a divided Government.

In 1973 a Democratic Senate opened its Inquiry into a Republican President. Within eighteen Months he had resigned. The same Year, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution over his Veto, to take back a little of its Power "To declare War."

In 1983 President Reagan and Speaker O'Neill, who agreed on almost nothing, saved Social Security together. Each could stop the other, so each had to talk to the other.

In 1990 a Republican President and a Democratic Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. Divided Government built the Ramps.

In the 1990s a Republican Congress pressed a Democratic President toward balanced Budgets, and the Treasury ran Surpluses from 1998 to 2001. I mention it because it is true, and because Checks work in both Directions. That is precisely why I want them back.

In 2019 a Democratic House investigated a Republican President, and in the same Year passed his Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. A Congress can check a President and work with him at once. Ours has kept the second Half and dropped the first.

I would give you the same Advice in a Year when the other Party held the Great House and a Congress that bowed to it. I hope I should have the Courage to. A Congress that will not check a President is no Use to the Republic, whatever its Colours.

The pleasant Member

Some of you mean to split the Difference, and vote for the pleasant Member of the President's Party, the one who frowns at the right Moments. I have written of such Members before. A Vote for the pleasant Member is a Vote for the Speaker of the President's Party, who decides what the House will investigate and what it will not. Her Nay is a Decoration. His Frown is a Decoration. The Speaker's Gavel, though, is no Decoration at all. It is a far more serious Instrument, and powerful enough to turn the Course of History.

❦   ❦   ❦

So here is the plainer Version, and I shall put it as simply as I can.

One need not love the Democrat to vote for one. One need only love one's Country more than any Party: enough to hold one's Nose, vote for the Opposition, and give the Constitution back its Checks and Balances.

You need not agree with the Candidate on everything. Grandpapa did not agree with the Constitution on everything. You need only agree that no President, of any Party, should govern without a Congress that can tell him No. On the 3rd of November, doubt a little of your own Infallibility, as he asked, and vote for the Congress that will.

P.S. Grandpapa was eighty-one, gouty and unwell, and still got himself to the State House to sign a Document he did not entirely approve. I trust you can get yourself to the Polls. If the Smell troubles you, I am reliably informed that the Ballot is folded before it is cast.