EconAir

Happy Birthday America! Democracy and individual liberties have survived for 250 years. Slavery was eliminated. The right to vote was extended to all Americans. America innovated the Industrial/Information Revolution and made the country the largest and most technologically-advanced economy in the world. In the 20 th   century, America helped defeat totalitarian regimes. America was an inspiration to all people who wanted to fight tyranny and oppression. From 1607 onwards, America was a special country built by immigrants and their descendants.   The foundation of this remarkable democratic edifice is the Constitution. The basic rules and political institutions were set out. Having denounced King George of England in the Declaration of Independence, the founders were particularly sensitive to the threat of an imperial president. The powers of the president in Madison’s first draft of the Constitution were weakened in subsequent revisions.    The founders, especially ...

  The Pantheon   Remember, Roman, that it is yours to lead other people. It is your special gift.      Virgil,  The Aeneid   We are the indispensable nation.  We stand tall.  We see further into the future.      Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright A Roman General Comes to Washington                  Imagine an educated patrician Roman officer from around 20 BC. He has spent most of his military career in the last decades of the Roman Republic and now is a legion commander in the first years of the Roman Empire of Caesar Augustus. Rome is at the height of its power and influence, acquired through conquest during the Roman Republic. Now imagine he is transported through time to today’s Washington. After marveling at the new technology (horseless chariots?), like any curious tourist he would start to look for similarities to his hometown, Rome.   The similarities...

Roman Legion Why Study Rome? Americans have focused on comparisons between Rome and America twice in American history.  The first time was during the period from before the Revolution to after the ratification of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, when the founding fathers and others looked to the Roman Republic for ideas and inspiration on how to structure the new government. After the American Revolution, the founding fathers, having read the Roman authors detailing the collapse of the Roman republic, worried about internal threats to the survival of their new republic.   The second time was when the United States became a superpower, especially after WWII, and then again after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Commentators compared America to the Roman Empire at the height of its power. There was some discussion about how America became a permanent warfare state and how it affected domestic democracy and civil society. ...