The Senator from Rome.
Before attending the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787, James Madison gave himself a homework assignment. Read all there was to read on the history of government, especially democratic government.
It wasn’t as daunting as it sounds. In 1787 everyone had been ruled by the same basic system for centuries. A king or emperor at the top. The common folk doing what they were told or else. There weren’t a lot of how-to books on the system he was trying to invent. Democracy for Dummies wouldn’t come along for a couple hundred years.
Still, it’s an exercise politically minded individuals could benefit from today. Somehow we’ve gotten ourselves into a rut where actual knowledge of governing is viewed as disqualifying elitism, and now they can’t figure out how to operate the light switches in the White House.
Back in 1787 the relevant reading material for Mr. Madison would have been the histories of the old Greek and Roman Republics. A man laboring to create the system of checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution would surely have noted the respect given to individual members of the Roman Senate. In times of trouble the voice of a powerful senator was often the only thing that kept the empire from running off the rails. Even after Julius Caesar took control and put the Republic on ice, an emperor who got on the wrong side of a powerful senator had trouble lasting beyond the first six months in office.
A person of letters like James Madison would have liked the idea that what fueled the power of a senator in ancient Rome was rhetorical skill. “Friends, Romans, countryman, rigged crooked failing media, FAKE,” would not have cut it in the days when Cato and Cicero held forth in the Roman Senate.
So I wonder if Madison is up there somewhere, smiling. I think he would have enjoyed watching the recent long night of drama in Washington, when three U.S. Senators stood against an imperious president and the tidal wave of sheer dumbness his party was determined to cobble into healthcare law. Those of us who opened the paper the next morning and read about the surprising demise of the anemic Skinny TrumpCare Bill or whatever they ended up calling it were witnessing the fruits of Madison’s early effort on our behalf.
We can take comfort in that. Especially at a time when not much seems to be working any more. Here was Lisa Murkowski of Alaska politely listing to the president’s interior secretary threaten to withhold funding for roads in her state if she didn’t change her vote, then reminding him that she headed the committee that controlled his budget.
And then there was John McCain’s speech. Newly returned from surgery and a diagnosis of brain cancer, acting every ounce the war hero as he stepped into the Senate chamber. McCain voted to begin debate on the healthcare bill and a lot of people were worried he’d knuckled under to the party line.
Then he said this: “I hope we can again rely on humility, on our need to cooperate, on our dependence on each other to learn how to trust each other again and by so doing better serve the people who elected us. Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the Internet. To hell with them. They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood. Let’s trust each other. Let’s return to regular order.”
Anyone with a thimbleful of understanding of the long history at work in the Senate would have paid attention to such words, especially coming from a senator known for his independent streak. Instead the Republican leadership left themselves with nothing to do but retreat to the Capital Hill washroom and slap cold water on their faces, wondering what the hell just happened.
John McCain signaled his decision to vote no on the Senate bill by turning his thumb down, which brings us appropriately back to ancient Rome. Anyone who’s seen a gladiator movie knows that in the Roman Coliseum thumbs down was the sign the cruel spectacle had gone on long enough. It’s time to sink the blade into the neck of the wounded, they never managed to impress the crowd one iota. The show’s over. The rest of us have work to do.
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