Foundations

Any building that will last requires a good foundation. Any political thought that will last also requires a good foundation. The political thought of our Founding Fathers had a good foundation. That foundation was Calvinistic, at least in the first of its instructive acrostic, TULIP.

The "T" stands for "Total Depravity". (The rest is: U-unconditional election, L- limited atonement, I- irresistible grace, P- perseverance of the saints.)

What is "Total Depravity"? It is the belief that men, all men (and women) are sinners and without hope in themselves to satisfy the righteous demands of a holy God. No only are we positionally sinners but we are sinners in our conduct. There are many passages of scripture which point this out: Psalm 14:2-4, Jeremiah 17:9,Romans 3:10-18, 23. It means that each of us is capable of the most heinous acts, and can and will act in a selfish way. This is true of criminal behavior and political behavior.

Our Founding Fathers realized this and put into the Constitution a system of checks and balances. This system pits one man's or group of men's depravity against another's, so that the only way to get anything done is to compromise. That is why when there is gridlock in D.C. you know that everything is working as it should. Theoretically, nothing should get done unless most people are getting something of what they want.

This is how things get done in this country. People who don't always agree with each will agree to do a little bit less than both like but something that both can live with. It is Compromise. It is Politics. It is ...... the American Way. You just have to get yourself into a position where your voice will be heard.

Now the counter side of this is to make sure that you don't go in naively, thinking just because you're there that you have arrived. It is a nasty game that you must be ready for. You should develop a power base that can be used and then use it.

Here in New York we are learning the game very slowly. We have worked to get a non-party endorsed candidate as the GOP candidate for governor. Now things didn't work out as we would have liked. Party bosses can be very vengeful. But we have shown that we have the power to get things done. Now it is time to exercise that power a little, to act in a selfish way for our best interests. This all part of learning the "game."

So compromise isn't a bad thing as long as you don't lose your integrity in the process and sell your soul to get what you want.