Fruits and Voices on organic orchards and how the Iowa vote skews.  Read more 

James Madison must be rolling over in his grave as Republican operatives take to the media speaking about the “GOP Brand.” Perhaps Karl Rove is destined for Madison Avenue. In Rove’s wake (and at his direction) is a nation deeply divided – this is the very division that James Madison warned against in his Federalist Paper No. 10.

A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.

Eerie – Madison (looking around him back then), the seer of many things to come - 200 years in the future.

Is there any wonder that our country is “polarized” when in nearly every case in which a citizen can make a decision there are only two choices? Bad or Worse.  Read more 

Image by Joseph Sohm, found here.

I think we can all agree that our political discourse has become a bull shop, a public bazaar at which all manner of bull is available for purchase, that last word to be understood in at least two of its dictionary definitions.

I think, also, we tend, in trying times like these, to forget that there is a lot of fine china in that shop, and even if much of seems in pieces, broken, aside from our ability to repair it, we still possess those same impulses, and the minds, hearts, and skills to revive the political arts that created that fine china.

That reminder is my birthday wish for my country.

My birthday present, on this, its 233rd birthday, defined broadly and generously, is James Madison.  Read more