On the rule of law, corporate shenanigans, and political governance
(Portrait of John Adams, by Gilbert Stuart, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
This time, a brief note to highlight someone else’s work in bringing historical perspective to the murky corners of contemporary affairs.
The rule of law – rather than the divine right of kings or other models of political governance – is the cornerstone of modern polities. The emphasis on it distinguished the US Constitution from prior forms of political organisation. Under the influence of thinkers like John Locke, the founding fathers of the United States, and especially John Adams, urged that this experiment in governance ensured that no one was above the law. Adams became the first vice president and the second president of the new republic.
Helen Cox Richardson’s daily Substack reports, Letters from an American, offer a historian’s attention to how the past has shaped the present with a critical eye on how the present might give warning signs about the future. This one draws a straight, crisp line from Adams to current entanglements between corporations, personal service companies, and the apparatus of politics. It’s not a pretty picture – and not what the artist Gilbert Stuart tried to project in the portrait above, or what John Adams and colleagues had in mind for the nation they founded.
Whether you agree with her (implicit) conclusions or not, the matter-of-fact reporting and the line of thinking she develops are worth considering. They tell a story of …