Part 12 of 13
“American exceptionalism.”
“What is it Reb?”
“The way the founders defined ‘We.’”
“We?”
“The constitutional pronoun We.”
“What’s exceptional about that?”
“The Enumeration.”
“You don’t say.”
“It defines We the People Gus.”
“By numbers?”
“The Enumeration is the counting of people.”
“The census.”
“Census is a noun.”
“So is enumeration.”
“Enumerate is the verb.”
“The doing.”
“Yes.”
“And that was exceptional?”
“There is no other republic like ours Gus.”
“Definitely not Plato’s.”
“And nothing like it since.”
“So the founders implemented something new by defining We the People by numbers.”
“They did.”
“And this is to happen every ten years?”
“A built in renewal.”
“So adding the ‘We’ to We the People was exceptional.”
“Still is.”
“So do the Enumeration and then what Johnny?”
“Divide by thirty Thousand.”
“To represent We the People.”
“Yes Yank.”
“This is the part where our Constitution says there shall be one Representative of We the People for every thirty Thousand people.”
“Yes.”
“That seems good.”
“We wouldn’t have had our Constitution without it.”
“Really?”
“It’s called the Connecticut Compromise.”
“Heard of that.”
“The Enumeration unifies by dividing.”
“Sounds like us.”
“You and me?”
“Yes.”
“Our war?”
“That and the Enumeration reverses.”
“Counter-intuitive.”
“More like it reverses thinking.”
“I hear ya.”
“The whole ‘unify by dividing’ idea.”
“Sharing.”
“It is sharing, ain’t it Johnny?”
“Power sharing.”
“We the People is a political means that divides in order to unify.”
“To share is to divide.”
“Go figure Reb.”
“Go figure Yank.”
*Next Up: 19 March and our season finale for Republican Values: Gus Kotka and Johnny Reb On Our Way Constitutional Solutions.
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner