The warlike "Us vs. Them" mentality that is now endemic to American political culture has yielded a lot of ugly fruits.
John Leake
October 15, 2025
John Leake
October 15, 2025
Because the U.S. government is apparently addicted to war, I often ponder a profound and eloquent reflection written by James Madison, author of the U.S. Constitution.
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
--James Madison, Political Observations, Apr. 20, 1795 in: Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, vol. 4, p. 491 (1865)
Partisanship in the United States is at least as old as the rivalry between Hamilton and Burr that resulted in Hamilton’s death in 1804. Partisan rivalry reached a fevered and ugly pitch in 1856, when Preston Brooks, Representative of South Carolina, beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner almost to death with a cane on the floor of the Senate.
However, since 2001, a war mentality has placed us in a state of hyper-vigilance and readiness to be angry and aggressive. This has engendered a steady “degeneracy of manners and morals” in the United States.
We see it whenever we watch news shows in which people who are supposed to be educated and civilized adults scream at the top of their lungs at other and use the most intemperate and ugly language in the entire English lexicon.
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
--James Madison, Political Observations, Apr. 20, 1795 in: Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, vol. 4, p. 491 (1865)
Partisanship in the United States is at least as old as the rivalry between Hamilton and Burr that resulted in Hamilton’s death in 1804. Partisan rivalry reached a fevered and ugly pitch in 1856, when Preston Brooks, Representative of South Carolina, beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner almost to death with a cane on the floor of the Senate.
However, since 2001, a war mentality has placed us in a state of hyper-vigilance and readiness to be angry and aggressive. This has engendered a steady “degeneracy of manners and morals” in the United States.
We see it whenever we watch news shows in which people who are supposed to be educated and civilized adults scream at the top of their lungs at other and use the most intemperate and ugly language in the entire English lexicon.
Screaming at each other on The View
We see it in the frequent acts of violence perpetrated on streets, in subways, and even in schools.
Man about to murder woman on train.
Keep reading on John Leak's Substack.