The Tribune Limited

Founders worried about the judgement of history

DONALD Trump’s new indictment by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., for crimes related to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, counts as another blow to his reputation.

He might be convicted. But even if he’s not, a set of deeper issues has clearly emerged already: Many leaders and politicians today just cling to power. Heedless of the common good, they seem to forget that the judgment of posterity will come, inescapably.

One clear diagnosis of this problem came almost 40 years ago from Robert Bellah, the renowned American sociologist, when he spotted a momentous transformation. It was 1986, and President Ronald Reagan had entered his second term.

Bellah felt that public officials lived too much in the moment. He feared that politicians had become too ambitious and egotistical, and had come to disregard not only their own reputation, but also, to some extent, the future itself – since “reputation” is a relation among people and among generations.

If politicians think that “private ambition, material aggrandizement, and looking out for number one are the most important things,” Bellah wrote, then they are implicitly suggesting that you should change into “a bad person.”

The transformation lamented by Bellah may not be irreversible, but many public figures have come dangerously close to the tenet once attributed to Louis XV, king of France in the 18th century: “Après moi le déluge,” “After me the flood” – which means that they are largely insensitive to what will remain after they are gone.

And yet, as a historian and author most recently of a biography of George Washington, I’d like readers to know that when America was young, the situation was the exact opposite.

People, especially public figures, were highly concerned about their reputation, or “character,” as it was usually called.

How a person looked through other people’s eyes was an obsession in the 18th century.

An individual in society, Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith wrote in 1759, is “immediately provided with the mirror.” Everyone is “placed in the countenance and behaviour of those he lives with.”

The American founders were particularly concerned about their reputations. Moreover, the judgment of posterity terrified them.

When Washington was about to enter the presidency, he realized his moral stature would suffer. “The eyes of Argus are upon me,” he wrote to his nephew Bushrod Washington in July 1789. Argus Panoptes, the many-eyed giant of Greek mythology, was watching Washington, “and no slip will pass unnoticed.”

When his turn for the highest office came, Thomas Jefferson also shivered with ominous presentiments.

“I know well that no man will ever bring out of that office the reputation which carries him into it,” he wrote.

Public officials will unavoidably fall from grace, Jefferson concluded: “The honey moon would be as short in that case as in any other, and its moments of ecstasy would be ransomed by years of torment and hatred.”

The founders had good reasons to tremble for their reputation – many of these men enslaved other human beings. At the same time, none of them tried to cling to the role of leader when their time had passed. That was because they dreaded the idea that public opinion would censor them as self-serving and cunning operators.

And, more important, it was because they didn’t want to become an embarrassment, a hindrance, a chunk of gravel in the very machinery of the nation. Washington, famously, set the example. In June 1799, Jonathan Trumbull Jr., the governor of Connecticut who had also served as Washington’s military secretary during the American Revolution, urged him to run for a third term. Many others had previously prodded him.

But Washington demurred. He was determined not to appear egotistical and be “charged” in the public eye “with concealed ambition.”

Perhaps even stronger, given the country’s heated political climate in the 1790s, there was also Washington’s awareness that he had become a problem himself.

“The line between Parties,” Washington wrote to Trumbull, had become “so clearly drawn” that politicians would “regard neither truth nor decency; attacking every character, without respect to persons – Public or Private – who happen to differ from themselves in Politics.”

Washington was aware that he was no longer the leader in the position to unify the nation in the way he did in the 1780s, at the end of the revolution. Even if he were willing to run for president again, “I am thoroughly convinced I should not draw a single vote” from the opposite side, he wrote Trumbull.

The founders were able to create a network of admirers who would serve as stewards of their reputation, while downplaying the missteps they made.

“Take care of me when dead,” old Jefferson begged James Madison, his friend of over 50 years, just a few months before he passed away.

For their part, flawed though these leaders were, they helped their friends and admirers by trying not to make them too uncomfortable. They stayed away from public controversy as much as they could. And when they believed they were done, they retired from the public scene –a political act in its own terms.

Even before entering the presidency, Washington wasn’t at all afraid to “tread the paths of private life.” He would do that eventually, right after his second term, in 1797, and “with heartfelt satisfaction.”

Washington had always accepted the unavoidable fact that, like every other mortal, he also would “move gently down the stream of life, until I sleep with my Fathers.”

Washington would be remembered as the American Cincinnatus. Just like Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the mythic Roman statesman and military leader, Washington himself relinquished power –and he did so voluntarily.

Relinquishing power and retiring were the best way to ensure Washington’s glory and reputation.

Apparently, passing the scepter to the next generation and worrying over one’s reputation don’t come as naturally today –at least to some.

Maurizio Valsania Università di Torino

EDITOR, The Tribune.

LUCIFER is at work in our country. He has set out to destroy the traditional family and marriage between a man and a woman. We are in the process of importing the demonic values of North America and Europe. This I believe is the strategy. This demonic, satanic behaviour has infiltrated the preschools in America. It is only a matter of time before it lands at our doorstep in the next five to 10 years. Christianity is under attack.

America and Europe is on a crusade to force countries to accept the life-styles of transgenders gays and lesbians as an acceptable behaviour. President Joe Biden and his two percent of the US primaries vice president Kamala Harris is, in my opinion, hell-bent on mutilating the genders of children, all for the sake of holding onto power. We must push back! To bring it home, a popular bookstore is selling books teaching kids how to live this lifestyle. We need the blood of Jesus to cover our children!

I applaud the Jamaican government for not giving accreditation to this lifestyle, i.e., the recent US diplomats of same-sex marriage. We know their position. I challenge the government and the official opposition and all members of parliament to articulate their position on these important matters: a) Do you support the teaching of this lifestyle in our schools? b) Do you support the mutilating of children’s genders? c) Do you support samesex marriage? We are under attack. The moral integrity of our country is at stake. We need the government and the opposition to take a position and publicly state that position.

STRACHAN

PAT

Nassau, August 2, 2023.

EDITOR, The Tribune. BAY Street and precincts … what might be unoccupied seems by authority Bay Street Development folks will apply for demolition orders and down those buildings will come. Someone did that to at least two buildings on Cumberland. For a few weeks sites used as parking lots then access blocked and now weeds - vegetation is growing tall and thick. Oh so much better even with the old building standing!

Dowdeswell Street - how many of the few standing buildings will the Authority demolish? Once a street of regal buildings now is a parking lot. How many east of Rawson Square will be demolished and left empty … probably weeds and vegetation will start growing or worse still plywood fence will be erected and soon every style of ugly poster will appear. Might it be best to paint these unused buildings … clean and maintain the surroundings. If the roof has gone, remove it leave the roof off. For years the Downtown Development people have been totally impotent can’t even keep the basic elements clean - painted so now we found the solutionbring in the bulldozer clear the building away … don’t maintain … suggest rethink please.

MARJORIE SMITH Nassau, August 1, 2023.

EDITOR, The Tribune.

TOURISM is certainly not just Nassau and certainly probably the revenue level of certain Family Islands exceeds per cap the revenue of the visitor to Nassau so surely we should maintain — ensure product is at best year round? We don’t clear North Eleuthera Airport which feeds into the upscale destination of Harbour Island. News showed the state of disrepair of the airport and simply the public has to critically ask where has the Director of Aviation been since September ‘21?

Useless posturing on social media daily when Rome (N Eleuthera Airport is in a shambles).

Repair of seats is that a big deal? Repair of Rest Rooms? Provisional repair of leaking roof give it a try, but do nothing for over 30 months or more except promise and PR scenarios and posturing...sorry failing grade, heads should role. Blazers and white pants don’t solve problems.

Let’s see now? Oh, yes, there will be a big PR event, a gaggle of Ministers and more ‘resilience’ than you can imagine and more promises and promises.

K HUTCHINSON Nassau, August 1, 2023.