The Federalist Papers

Last night, I finally made it to Federalist paper No. 1. I started reading the book a few weeks ago. I've taken my time making it through the introduction which is extraordinarily long. Moreover, I've only been reading the book before bed and even for a future law student the read is slow. However, the first entry, written by Hamilton, I feel is an adequate window into political arguments today.

Federalist paper No. 1 is an introduction to the arguments that will be made over the series. If you're unfamiliar with the Federalist papers (which I won't make you feel bad about because I couldn't have told you precisely the arguments made until I read this), it begins with a criticism of the Articles of Confederation and then a defense of the new Constitution. It's a bit more complicated than that, but this description will do for now.

Now, to take a small break, I recently read an article about how the Tea Party is bringing a debate about the Constitution and Originalism to the forefront of American political discourse (big words big words big words). Basically, people are actually talking about what makes our country... well... our country. That two-hundred-some-year-old piece of paper all of the sudden may have meaning again to the general public.

In a way, I'm glad that that people may start thinking about government and the founding fathers. However, I hope that if and when this discussion takes place, people actually do a little research about it. I imagine that the typical hype will be over the first ten amendments (which generally people can name standing on their head), but I want people to look further than high school civics if possible. I don't want people to assume that they understand the (for example) Second Amendment just because they know what it says. People need to understand why it was written to begin with. The Federalist Papers would be a good start.