Old ideas keep America on course but they also solidify and stagnate. Eventually the old overwhelms elected officials, business leaders and policy-makers. They get hemmed in by the historical tried and true. But now we’re living and working in the dynamic 21st Century.
One old idea that should remain burnished brightly however, is moral philosopher Adam Smith’s 18th Century vision about capitalism. It should be about something much larger than the mere pursuit of self-interest. It should be about the pursuit of self-interest rightly understood. It should be about go-go entrepreneurs including Donald Trump who ought to be doing more—much more—than merely to take the money and run.
In his April 10 opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Barton Swain observes the Republican Party has become about not taking a fence down until you understand why it was put up in the first place. It’s about attempting to preserve the status quo. The Democratic Party on the other hand Swain argues, has been and ought to be about dynamism; about change.
Claims Swain: Joe Biden now presides over a party that has become moribund in its ideology; in its capacity to create dynamic change. Would Adam Smith agree? If he agreed, what might be Smith’s revitalizing prescription?
We’re taking a “shot” at this, here. Stay tuned.
~Jim Sawyer
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