We explore the hard way through Hercules, Gouverneur Morris, and The Who's Pete Townsend. All of this is not so subtle encouragement for our newly minted House of Representatives.
We explore the hard way through Hercules, Gouverneur Morris, and The Who's Pete Townsend. All of this is not so subtle encouragement for our newly minted House of Representatives.
The Hard Way: Clown House Part 2
January 2022
Several decades ago, the Who, led by Pete Townsend, penned a song called It’s Hard. I remember a female DJ wryly suggesting the song was a male anatomical reference. If she was correct, it was buried in some poignant lyrics by Townsend.
Any tough can fight, few can play
Anyone can try, but a few can stay
Any stud can reproduce, few can please
Anyone can pay, few can lease
Any kid can fly, few can land
Any brain can hide, few can stand
Any gang can scatter, few can form
Any kid can chatter, few can inform
Everyone complains, few can state
Anyone can stop, few can wait
It’s hard
It’s very, very, very, very hard, so very hard
Anyone can do anything if they hold the right card
Deal me another hand, Lord, this one’s very hard
Per that last line, I feel that sentiment at least once a week though I have been incredibly fortuitous to have been born in this Republic at this time. But I am not sanguine about the challenges I face, nor of those faced by our Republic. And though Townsend provides a robust list of virtues, the favorable ones definitely contain specific attributes. Perseverance, dedication, discipline, and the titular hard work exemplify this list.
“Sometimes, the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.” That one was a bit more contemporary, coming from the musical group The Fray. They say “sometimes,” but I would say most of the time.
There is a Greek parable I have noted before and will again because of its penetrating look into the choices we make. The parable stems from the Classical era of ancient Greece and is reported by Xenophon in Memorabilia. In Xenophon’s text, Socrates tells how the young Heracles. As the hero contemplates his future, he is visited by the female personifications of Vice and Virtue. They offer him a choice between a pleasant and easy life of continuous pleasures or a severe but glorious life and present their respective arguments. Vice state, “I will lead you into the possession of pleasure, and out of the reach of pain, and remove you from all the noise and disquietude of business. The affairs of either peace or war shall have no power to disturb you. Your whole employment shall be to make your life easy and to entertain every sense with its proper gratifications.” Unfortunately, this sounds more like a job description for a current Congress member than a heroic choice.
Virtue addressed Hercules with this, “I will be open and sincere with you, and must lay down this, as an established truth, that there is nothing truly valuable which can be purchased without pains and labor. The gods have set a price upon every real and noble pleasure. If you would gain the favor of the Deity, you must be at the pains of worshiping him: if the friendship of good men, you must study to oblige them: if you would be honored by your country, you must take care to serve it. In short, if you would be eminent in war or peace, you must become master of all the qualifications that can make you so. These are the only terms and conditions upon which I can propose happiness. My young men have the pleasure of hearing themselves praised by those who are in years; and those who are in years, of being honored by those who are young. In a word, my followers are favored by the gods, beloved by their acquaintance, esteemed by their country, and honored by posterity after the close of their labors.”
If for some reason, this does not call up members of our current Congress, it is not because of unfamiliarity.
This theme was revisited many times, especially in Renaissance art. My favorite is Allegory of Virtue and Vice, a painting by Venetian Paolo Veronese, created circa 1565 in Venice and now located in the Frick Collection, which is in New York.
Those crazy gilded age bastards who bought half of Europe’s work.
One of the reasons that the left is now assaulting terms such as virtue, merit, or even the concept of hard work is they would argue that such attributes do not negate a system rigged against their constituents. Instead, they would aver that these terms are window dressing used by whites to mask the systemic inequalities that favor whites. It is why the Smithsonian of all institutions recently stated that the concept of merit is somehow racist, a white construct. Wow. Their point is that all the hard work in the world does not mean anything when the odds are stacked against you, no amount of hard work will help one get ahead.
First, the falsity of this concept is shown by the fact that in so many areas of American society ranging from politics to entertainment to the academy and even to science where we see minorities getting ahead, even holding sway. This is a good thing, but the underlying premise of lack of merit is insidious. Condoleeza Rice did not become the first female African American Secretary of State because her effort was moderate. She worked hard. Though Lebron James is politically an ignoramus and a hypocritical one to boot, there is no sentient person who was watched him perform over the past two decades who doubts his work ethic. At his level in the NBA, no amount of talent gets him to be regarded as perhaps the greatest of all time. It is hard work and his own agency that brought him to this status.
When we think of the development of the Constitution, we tend to think first of James Madison and then of other prominent figures that, include Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and even of George Washington. We think less about Gouverneur Morris. In an article by Nicholas Mosvick entitled “Forgotten Founders: Gouverneur Morris,” written in 2020, the author states, “At the Convention, he was highly instrumental in creating the language and structure of the Constitution, as by his namesake, the “Penman of the Constitution.” (By contrast, James Madison is often referred to as the “Father of the Constitution” for his contributions to the Constitution’s structure and philosophical underpinnings.) Morris was on the two central committees at the Convention (he also served on the committee to consider the proportional representation and the committee on the slave trade and navigation)—the “Committee of Style and Arrangement,” charged with editing the final text and details of the document, and the “Committee on Postponed Parts” or the “Committee of Eleven,” which crafted solutions to the intractable problems at the Convention like the selection of the presidency. As Madison recalled in an 1831 letter, “The finish given to the style and arrangement of the Constitution fairly belongs to the pen of Mr. Morris . . . A better choice could not have been made, as the performance of the task proved.” Morris, for instance, changed Wilson’s original preamble language referencing “We, the People of the States” to “We, the People of the United States.”
Morris also spoke more than any other member of the Convention, a testament to his famous oratorical abilities. He gave (are you ready for this number) 173 speeches over the course of the Convention, more than second-place James Wilson (168) and third-place James Madison (161). In addition, he was influential during both the early and late stages of the proceedings, helping Edmund Randolph introduce a three-part plan for a whole new government on May 30, 1787: “(1) That a union of the states must provide for the common defense, security of liberty, and general welfare; (2) That no treaty or treaties among any of the states as sovereign, will accomplish or secure their common defense, liberty or welfare; and (3) That a national government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme judicial, legislative and executive.” As a leading Federalist, Morris thought there must be one supreme national power and that a mere federal compact was insufficient to bind a nation.”
I love that title, Forgotten Founder. Today it would be sadly difficult for most people to ascribe the works of Madison correctly; aside from that, he, like tens of thousands around the world in the 18th century, owned slaves. But Morris? Not a chance. Yet, he was not unknown in his day. And I am gladdened that in 2020 a scholar would write an essay about this critical figure. Our constitutional system, the most remarkable governmental document ever written, would be a different, worse thing without Morris.
The other prominent aspect of Morris was the serious hard work he put into the effort. Can one imagine any of the 220 GOP representatives putting in that kind of effort? There may be some hidden in the ranks. But we do not know who they are because instead, we have our conservative media featuring the likes of an unserious person such as Lauren Boebert. To say controversial things and garner social media attention is easy. Coming up with detailed legislation that actually improves our nation is hard.
There is a historical trend that some of the fiercest and most contested conflicts are not between what we might name natural enemies but within the group itself. One such example is the violent struggles of iconoclasm within the Byzantine Empire. The “Iconoclastic Controversy” over religious images was a defining moment in the history of the Eastern Roman “Byzantine” Empire. Centered in Byzantium’s capital of Constantinople (modern Istanbul) from the 700s–843, imperial and Church authorities debated whether religious images should be used in Christian worship or banned. This intra-Christian debate over images led to several armed struggles, riots, and displaced emperors.
Please note those dates. The Islamic prophet Mohammad died in 632 CE, and afterward, his followers began massive conquests extending from Spain to India’s borders.
And while the Arabs threatened the very existence of the Byzantines, they fought among themselves over … icons.
This was demonstrated in the 1980s when Iraq, at the time ruled by Saddam Hussein’s Baathist Sunni party, faced off against Shia Iran. The result was a million casualties.
There is a desire for purity, unity, for lockstep allegiance to the group. It is why at times, conservative pundits, especially Trump supporters, seemed to go after Mitch McConnell with far more glee and vitriol than aimed at the likes of Joe Biden or Chuck Schumer. And I am guilty of that, as well as seen in my previous podcast.
The issue is that in a two-party structure, only one even cursorily talks about fiscal restraint. That is why the GOP is my party. My goals are simple: smaller government as represented by a government spend to GDP rate below 20% (its average has ballooned to 25%, and in 2020, during COVID, it was over 44%. Of our total spending, at least 15% is on defense (currently at 10%). I am not a factual neo-conservative, finding many of our interventions costly.
Yet if the US does not take the lead in military prowess, some other country will, and eventually, that nation will begin to dictate terms to the United States. I question government intervention in most things, but that critical “life” in Life Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness, those first two, are predicated on a strong military, which is a government function. Since I cannot get anything close to this from the Democrats, I am a Republican and thus get sorely disappointed when they fall so short of the goals stated above.
In my last podcast, I noted the foibles and follies of the GOP, referring to their initial tenure as a Clown House. Some of the clowns included George Santos and his memory challenges, Kevin McCarthy surviving his metamorphous to an invertebrate, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene and their competition to be Donald Trump’s bestie (c’mon gals, we all know it will be Kari Lake), and finally his High Odiousness, Matt Gaetz who almost got pummeled by Mike Rodgers, it was not precisely a disciplined exercise.
Less trapeze and more oversized feet, red noses, eerie makeup, and zany, wacky behavior.
So why do I care so much and spend a goodly amount of my week doing a podcast taking down the same group of people who will most advance my interests in Congress? That statement answers my question. What is missing from the GOP and so much of American life today is the correlation between what one wants to achieve and the degree to which they achieve it; it is directly, inextricably linked to hard work.
In a recent article, “Why Entitlement Reform Is So Hard,” written in the Dispatch by James C. Capretta, “The US electorate’s hostility toward serious entitlement reform has a long and consistent track record. Unyielding defense of the status quo has been a winning campaign strategy for decades, and serial efforts to push major changes to Social Security and Medicare onto the national agenda have all sputtered and failed. Both parties have internalized the lesson. Lawmakers have two means to address the problem: Spend less—through reduced benefits for high earners, more efficient health care, or raising the age of eligibility—or increase revenue through tax hikes. If elected leaders do not restrain spending, raising taxes is the only option. The Biden administration clearly favors taking a tax-focused path, as do many Republicans (albeit mostly implicitly). The trustees overseeing Social Security project that the program’s two trust funds will run short of funding on a combined basis in 2035. For Medicare’s hospital insurance (HI) trust fund, depletion is expected in 2028. The impending exhaustion of these trust funds could be the impetus for moving ahead with tax hikes, or—if that constraint is pushed aside through various maneuvers and gimmicks—it could be the effect escalating program expenditures are having on annual federal borrowing and total debt. Either way, the pressure is building and will not dissipate soon.” We should hope, but I am not as optimistic about this pressure as the author.
I noted Lebron James earlier. To be good at basketball, one needs talent. I could spend 80 hours a week in the gym, but I would never be good at it. As Coach Sam Mussabini notes in the epic Chariots of Fire, “you cannot put in what god’s left out.” And god made me slow with a jump height able to clear a snail’s shell. One needs the talent to be good. But one also requires hard work; part of hard work is putting in the time. Again basketball. Time to work on the jumper, positioning, ball handling, and scouting opponents. The difference is often noted in precisely one-half of each game in the NBA.
Michael Jordan was not only the scoring champ but also the defensive player of the year.
Hard work. But hard work is not just time. Hard is making tough choices. In terms of our supine Congress, whose three methods of governance today consist of the following: First, leadership creates a massive bill and then forces it on Congress at the last minute without debate or consideration. We just saw that with Pelosi’s pork fest, bloated bile ridden $1.7 omnibus bill. The second is to create massive bills, but instead of spelling out the details, they abrogate their responsibilities and push all the details to the executive branch, with the ACA being the most prominent.
The third is kicking the can down the road. This has been done with the necessary reform of the ACA never done. It is the approach to the impending bankrupt entitlement programs as noted above. It is prevalent with tax reform, immigration, crime, and the nature of the executive agencies, which operate more like mini governments with revenue, regulation, and judicial practices under the same roof. We see this today from the SEC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Transportation.
At this rate, social security is to go bankrupt in 12 years. Medicare will be there in six. It is time for hard choices, and since I have little faith in the Democrats to do so, it will have to be the GOP. I have just a smidge of doubt that the current leader of the GOP is Trump, and the House leader is McCarthy.
But like Hercules, I only have two choices, and it has to be the GOP. Like Herc, I will be put through a lot of pain. But, unlike the cleaner of the Augean stables and slayer of the Nemean Lion, I am not so certain I will see the glory.