Fisher Ames was a great man. He also had a great name (I couldn't resist). But this original, almost completely forgotten Conservative philosopher said something hundreds of years ago that is as relevant in the world today as wigs and horses were back when he said it.
Ames said, "Society is the substratum of government."
By that he meant that culture, in many ways, steers the ship of state. As the values of the culture change, voters will elect people who embody and represent those changing values. It doesn't matter if those changes in morals were brought on by the media, the church, a partisan and biased educational system, or all of the above; the people eventually get what they want. If their wants shift in a certain direction, regardless of the cause, in a representative republic the government will eventually change with it.
The establishment Republicans -- who have shown a far more robust proclivity to attack Tea Party conservatives than attacking the socialist left -- have been living at odds with this sentiment. They seem to believe in the culture of money and Democrat-Light government that plays dog to the societal tail.
RIGHT'S RIGHT 
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Fri Nov 01, 2013 9:05 am
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