Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

Date: October 4, 2007    # 940 - Title: New Solutions       (815)

Can America solve the major political issues now dividing it with “New Solutions” as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is now suggesting? Yes, I think it can. Identifying divisive issues and then seeking solutions to resolve those issues is not new, it is how the United States was created.

            Gingrich’s doctorate in American history has served him well in establishing his “American Solutions for Winning the Future” think tank as he follows in the footsteps of several of America’s historic Founders – namely Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Mason.

            Thomas Jefferson, in 1775, identified 27 issues that were then dividing the Colonists from King George III, issues as divisive and controversial for their day as today’s political issues are for our day. Jefferson wrote down his 27 issues, issues that were later inserted into the Declaration of Independence to justify their upcoming separation from England. Was there unanimity in 1776? No. The people were as divided in 1776 as they are today. The eternal principle of thirds existed then just as it exists today: a third of the people for, a third against, and a third undecided.

            James Madison became the major agitator for a “New Constitution” eleven years later, in 1787, by identifying the numerous issues created by the incompetent Articles of Confederations, the then governing document of America. When Congress authorized the constitutional convention in February 1787 they firmly stated the convention was only to ‘modify’ the Articles to make them more effective. Madison came to the convention convinced the Articles of Confederation had to be replaced. He, Madison, like Gingrich, had done his homework and had identified the issues. He then suggested a solution for that major issue. His ideas and agenda, like Newt’s ideas and agenda today, provided the ideas for the debate that eventually led to a real solution – a new unique Constitution. But it took nearly four months of fierce debate to reach agreement.

America would not exist today without Madison calling for “New Solutions” to very divisive issues, issues that were then, as today’s issues are today, preventing America from governing effectively.

            George Mason identified what he and others considered to be serious issues in the newly signed Constitution and felt strong enough about those issues that they were prepared to oppose the Constitution’s ratification. Their issues: the liberties they had fought the war for were not sufficiently guaranteed in the new Constitution. This led to a call to identify those liberties that needed to written into guaranteed in the recently ratified Constitution. The Congresses first order of business in 1789 was to ask the states to submit their ‘solutions.’ A flood of proposed solutions was generated: 189 in total. Many were duplicates and were consolidated by Madison to seventeen. Congress reduced the seventeen to twelve which were then sent to the states for ratification as Amendments to the new Constitution. The states ratified ten and on December 15, 1791 these ten suggested solutions from ‘the people’ became America’s cherished Bill of Rights.

And where would America be today without America’s three unique documents, with growing numbers believing they were divinely inspired foundational documents, documents that became the bulwark of liberty to freedom seeking people worldwide? These three documents, each created by unique issues at different times in America’s history, still inspire those fighting for freedom around the world. 

But it will take more than “New Solutions” to solve the issues now dividing America, issues that threaten the very foundation of America, a nation God raised up, using “wise men,” to “restore” liberty to a world enslaved by tyrants. It will require a resolve on the part of today’s American people, a resolve equal to the resolve the Founders had when they created this nation using God’s “perfect laws of liberty” as their pattern, the same laws Moses used to restore liberty to the three million Israelites he led out of Egyptian slavery. The same God who led Moses across the Red Sea is He who raised up “wise men” to create a new nation of freedom on a new continent, with an uniquely inspired Constitution.

Newt knows today’s divisive issues. But his biggest challenge will be in communicating today’s divisive issues to the public in such a way as to get ‘the people’ involved in making the needed changes – both on the local and national level.  The political consequences of ignoring today’s serious political issues will be as deadly as they would have been had the Founders ignored Jefferson’s 27 issues used to justify the Declaration of Independence in 1776, or the issues Madison raised over the floundering Articles of Confederation in 1787, or Mason’s issues that led to America’s Bill of Rights in 1791.

Newt Gingrich has something special to offer America – a proven way to help restore America’s old fashioned but proved principles of freedom deeply embedded into America’s founding documents.

It’s worth the effort.