“To adapt government to time and place; to modify it according to circumstances; such is the first duty imposed on those who direct society in our day…  A new political science is needed for a world altogether new.” Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America

The world we are part of is rapidly changing… changing demographically, economically and socially. Emerging powers such as China and India are embracing the change and using it to their advantage, while America seems to be clinging to the way things were.

I agree with the Tocqueville quotation at the top of this page: The first duty of national leaders is to ensure that government adapts to time and place, is modified according to circumstances. Indeed, in this altogether new world we desperately need a new form of politics, and the quest for a new form of politics is at the heart of my journey.

David Brooks wrote in The New York Times that America’s “social fabric is fraying. Human capital is being squandered. The labor markets are ill and wages are lagging. Inequality is increasing. The nation is over consuming and under innovating… Not all these challenges can be addressed by the spontaneous healing powers of the market.” And, neither can government programs or tax policies successfully resolve our problems.

Brooks’ observation that our nation’s founders “didn’t build their political philosophy on whether government was big or not…They built their philosophy on making America virtuous, dynamic and great…” is right on point.

Their commitment was to form a government that supported the basic founding principles of equality, liberty, and democracy. They built a government committed to preserving justice for all; the sovereignty and welfare of all people; human dignity; and a plethora of freedoms, including freedom of religion, the press, speech and assembly.

The founders of this great nation held sacred the words of the Declaration of Independence, which I believe (minus the gender specific language) express their “idea” of America:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

The constitution they adopted on September 17, 1787, with its 27 amendments, remains the supreme law of the land. It is the shortest and oldest written constitution being used in the world today, and holds a central place not only in American law but also in our political landscape.  I fear, however, that it is too often used as a final solution to all things, rather than as a set of principles that guide our national life.

In a September 25^th article The Economist warned against turning the constitution into scripture and the founders into deities,  “The constitution, on its own, does not provide the solution. Indeed there is something infantile in the belief of the constitution-worshipers that the complex political arguments of today can be settled by simple fidelity to a document written in the 18^th century… The framers were giants, visionaries… But they were also aristocrats, creatures of their time… They did not believe that poor men, or any women, let alone slaves, should have the right to vote.”

The constitution does not give us definitive right or wrong answers to a myriad of social issues facing our nation today, issues such as gay marriage and reproductive rights. But it does give us a legal, moral and political framework for our national decision-making.

It is the responsibility of every American generation to apply the founding principles to their time in history and, working together across political boundaries, to ensure that the basic rights of all Americans are protected. The constitution does not belong to a particular political party or ideology; it belongs to the people. And, in a sense, it belongs to the world.

Governments and people across the globe look to the United States for leadership in meeting global challenges. They observe closely and critically how we live out our basic principles, and they aspire to the freedom and equality that we sometimes take for granted.

I believe that we have the capacity to meet that leadership challenge. We have the capacity to lead the way along paths to peace, economic stability, and environmental sanity. But first we must see ourselves as not just Americans, but also as citizens of the world. It is our privilege to live in this nation, and that privilege carries with it great responsibility.

We must understand that when an infant in Africa dies from poverty-related causes, we are diminished; when a third-world mother dies in childbirth because of poor prenatal care, we are diminished; when a girl in Afghanistan cannot get a basic education because there are no schools in her village, we are diminished; when entire nations suffer from malnutrition, dirty water, abject poverty and violence, we are diminished.

To fulfill the leadership challenge we must come out from behind our walls of xenophobia and engage seemingly intractable issues at home and abroad. We need to come together as a nation committed to the principles of equality, liberty and democracy. We must be prepared to listen to the truths of others, and be willing to move beyond ideological rigidity into consensus.

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