Founding Fathers would shudder at today’s politicians

When I directed organizations, every once in a while, I would pause to ask myself two questions. First, what is the primary reason we exist? And second, what are our essential principles?

I would ask any staff to consider the same two questions, then we would sit down to discuss them, paying attention to our reasons for existence and basic principles. We would take the time every six months to do this because all institutions evolve and require careful maintenance. It is a remedy for chaos, which seems to grip many organizations these days.

It’s a process I learned from the work of Stephen R. Covey, author of the bestselling “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

One of these principles is learning to sharpen the saw. To illustrate this principle Covey tells the story of a person cutting wood for his fireplace, and having difficulty doing so until someone said he needs to sharpen the saw before cutting. In other words, whether an individual or an organization, taking the time to know what you want to do and how to do so are the first steps.

There’s another story of a ship being tossed at sea during a storm. A passenger asks the captain where the ship is headed. “I don’t know,” the captain responds, “but we’re getting there twice as fast.” This is what happens when no one is clear where they are headed.

In the midst of the political chaos of our time, I thought it might be helpful at least to myself to ask the two questions about our republic. Why do we exist? And what are our basic principles?

The basic reasons our republic exists and our principles are stated clearly in our Constitution: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity...”

Our purpose is to form a more perfect union, one in which people govern themselves. And the basic principles for doing so are listed: to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility. defend ourselves against anyone who would seek to overthrow our republic, and promote the general welfare.

I am not a lawyer nor a constitutional expert, but I can read and think for myself, which is why we are a republic based on the radical notion that citizens can govern themselves. We are here to keep the republic healthy. It’s that simple and that difficult to accomplish.

We keep the republic healthy by keeping informed of national issues and electing those we believe will work to sustain our ideals.

Somewhere along the way, we seem to have lost the initial impetus for our republic. How can we defend ourselves when we pass on such national debts to the next generation? And how can we promote the general welfare when so many of our citizens are without work, food, and often hope?

I shudder to think what our founders would say to us today with a seemingly divided government and people, with selfpromoting leaders, money-shaping elections, and spending out of control.

Perhaps Ben Franklin would say to us what he supposedly said to a bystander when asked what kind of government the founders had envisioned: “A republic if you can keep it.”