Behold 'the obsequious instruments of his pleasure'

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist

Today’s lesson is from the Federalist Papers. Open your textbooks to The Federalist No. 76 (National Archive: tinyurl.com/4fed76). Quilled by the recently resurrected Alexander Hamilton, it includes the following:

“It will readily be comprehended, that a man who had himself the sole disposition of offices, would be governed much more by his private inclinations and interests, than when he was bound to submit the propriety of his choice to the discussion and determination of a different and independent body, and that body an entire branch of the legislature. … He would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the most distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than … being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure. …”

That, in a florid nutshell, is the rationale for requiring the Senate to investigate, then approve or deny a president’s choices for positions of power. Mr. Hamilton must have had exactly the narcissistic, vengeful, self-promoting Trump in mind. (Wrongly, he presumed a human capability of shame.) Not alone among his colleagues, idiocratic Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., believes Trump should be allowed anyone he chooses, without pesky, Constitution-mandated interference (HuffPost: tinyurl.com/badcoach4u).

Aware of human imperfections, the Founders almost had it right. But they seem to have assumed that, in aggregate, senators would not suffer the infirmities we see in Trump. That, tasked with evaluating obviously unqualified and dangerous nominees, senators would place duty to protect and defend the Constitution above all else. In their defense, Our Fathers were surrounded by and were themselves men of good intention, having risked much to create a new nation. If they foresaw a sociopathic individual like Trump as president, they could not have imagined a Senate majority of them.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-behold-the-obsequious-instruments-of-his-pleasure/

[The Roux Comes First]

1. Let's Face It Square; the Worst of the Founders (and There Were Some Dismal Ones for Sure) Were Far Better

And more democratic in their thinking than the Felon. For that matter, far better than most of the current "supreme" court.

And "obsequious" and "ashamed" are certainly playing out differently in our day.

[slightlv]

2. I wonder...

if coming out of winning a revolution for liberty, going thru the fiasco of the Articles of Confederation, and finally writing the Declaration of Independence AND the Constitution... I wonder if the "Founding Fathers" were still high from their victories and not really able to think seriously about those internal enemies they gave lip service about. Either that, or it was such a time of innocence that nobody could possibly conceive of anyone like Trump, Musk, or the rest of the repuglican party actually trying to take the country back to the time BEFORE they won Independence. Something has to account for all this mess... and I can't help but think Franklin, as worldly as he was, wouldn't have raised the issue most vociferously.

[The Roux Comes First]

4. Point Well Taken!

I would not want the next Super Bowl winners to have any role in major decisions for weeks after, like, say, the frosting on my granddaughter's birthday cake.

[Skittles]

3. spot on

so many fucking cowards out there