Ryan Streeter
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Mona Charen does us a nice service in her NRO piece today by quoting Calvin Coolidge at length. We don't often hear much about Cool Cal these days, so this was a refreshing read. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Coolidge said this in a speech:
About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great chapter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.
We can, of course, make progress toward the ideals of equality and a government limited by consent of the governed. But his main point stands. Anytime we think we're making "progress," we need to ask whether we are actually moving not forward, but backward. Or downward.
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