HonorBound24 - A Question of Honor

HonorBound24

Franklin’s Edit

Without honor, without purposeful goodness of intent and commitment within a community, humanity is just another herd trekking a plain, a flock coursing a flyway - pick a species, pick a season.

With honor, with trust and yearning, purpose and courage, great dreams have been dreamed, heroes found and nations formed, histories written of heights soared, of what more can be dreamed.

Words, both spoken and written, edited and printed, are core to the making of a people, of from where they came, of to where they intend to go, all in formulating the rules and compacts by which they agree to live their lives and secure their future.

And across the millennia of human time in the crafting of foundational documents there is an instance of an edit that, in my readings, is unsurpassed as to its value to the purpose at hand and its historical impact. Inserted by Franklin into Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence, the edit comprised two words, self and evident, to wit “We hold these truths to be self-evident...”

With the stroke of a pen, Franklin pointed us, and history, passed sovereignty by royal succession to government on and by the consent of the governed, on their purpose and their character.

Capturing the thrust of Paine’s Common Sense, Franklin’s edit leads us to Jefferson’s immortal phrasing on equality, i.e., we each being endowed with “…certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”

The Founders’ focus and purpose, though, was beyond the realm of rights. A right delineates the nature of a relationship among persons. Duty is another matter. The Founders’ duty, as they saw it, required of them to stand against history’s first world power in securing the exercise of their rights, individual and collective.

And it is in this sense of duty that the Founders require of those who follow to understand fully what was at risk – their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor - and what was won - their freedom; government of the people, by the people and for the people.

To make permanent the success of their revolution, the Founders developed a unique government structure comprising three equal branches - legislative, executive, judicial. Also facilitated in the Constitution were means to accommodate the nation’s passage over time with the continuing consent of the governed through open and fair elections.

Critically, what eventuated over the first century of the new nation’s political history was a two-party system (TPS) to serve as interface between the government and the citizenry. TPS serves as an unofficial institution that organizes the political process. A fourth branch of government in all but name and license, the TPS facilitates and actuates the consent of the governed. American Democracy cannot function without it.

And it is the TPS that is currently at greatest risk. As forecast by Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2016, Donald Trump has all but destroyed the Republican Party, it now widely regarded as a Trump-controlled cult. Trump’s election this November is all but certain to complete the expiration of what remains of the GOP and put the TPS itself in extreme jeopardy.

While in offering his edit in 1776 Franklin could not possibly have anticipated a TPS, he most certainly anticipated a fully functioning political process by which the consent of the governed would be reliably manifest and incorporated into the goals and doings of the new nation’s government.

Most regrettably, Dr. Franklin’s expectations are in peril. The system, our nation’s political process, is breaking down before our very eyes.

The system, and Dr. Franklin, presumed a practical sense of honor amongst the contestants to positions of influence. Certainly, it was by men of honor, and with honor, that the Declaration was agreed and implemented, the consent of the governed to be sought and given.

Unique in the history of our nation, those not elected in 2020 did not stand back. They falsely challenged the proven results of the election and viciously attacked the system that had installed them in their offices of government. They have dishonored their oath to the Constitution and have purposefully attacked it.

So that leaves us in 2024 with November 5 and what to do about it all. Step one: register to vote, pick a polling place, plan to be there early. Next, be aware that at the presidential level, there are two candidates and three choices: (1) Kamala Harris, (2) Donald Trump, (3) not voting for the president position.

The last of these choices is referred to as under voting by the record keepers. In 2020, one percent of those voting declined to vote for a president, well over a million. Some particulars here. In that year, for the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Nebraska, and Nevada, the under voting count was above 40,000, with the margin of victory for Nevada and Arizona at 33,596 and 10,457, respectively.

Back to duty. It is the duty of all citizens to vote and to vote with purpose. Those voting without choosing a presidential candidate are simply telling both parties that each has failed to put up a candidate worthy of their vote. Do better next time.

As for yourself, you are a person of honor, or you would not be reading this. As such you should, in this particular instance must, require of those on whom to bestow your vote a degree of personal honor worthy of the position of President of the United States of America.