Considering the origin of our plutocracy
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Editor,
A letter to the editor from Rolan Becker in the April 17 issue states that my letter of April 3 “makes several statements worthy of challenge,” then fails to say what these statements are except to deny the accuracy of something I hadn’t said.
My letter of that date had the narrow objective of stating the historical fact (contrary to two previous letters from local “conservatives”) that the Declaration of Independence was not divinely inspired. Everyone involved in its writing was either an atheist or deist. Mr. Becker never addresses this issue.
As his letter addresses me, but doesn’t involve me, I will address some of his comments. His main point seems to be that the overwhelming majority of the founders were Christians. Why, I thought, would a Christian wish to have any association with the seamier provisions of the Constitution (slavery, racism, sexism, elitism, etc.)? I don’t know. What I do know is that the 55 men at the constitutional convention represented the rich and super rich, whose class interests became the law of the land.
Another bit of correcting the record involves his statement that this country is a republic, not a democracy. I give you three references to the contrary. First, Henry Steele Commager, Living Ideas in America, New Enlarged Edition, 1964: “In our own day there has developed the very curious notion that a republic is somehow not only different from a democracy but antithetical to a democracy, and therefore because the United States is a republic it is not a democracy! The evidence is overwhelming that the Framers used the term republic as we now use the term democracy … .” If you will go to his volume, he provides lengthy quotes from James Madison and Thomas Paine to substantiate this position.
Harold Young
St. Ignatius
