The First Socialist Republic

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Professor Paul Rahe is one of the academy's foremost authorities on the history of republics. Although his recent work on soft despotism is not far from his Thanksgiving reflections this year, so also is his older work on republics: On Thanksgiving, it is customary that Americans recall to mind the experience of the Pilgrim Fathers This year, it is especially appropriate that we do so--as we pause, in the midst of an economic maelstrom, to count our remaining blessings and to reflect on the consequences of our election of a President and a Congress intent on "spread[ing] the wealth around." We have much to learn from the history of the Plymouth Plantation. For, in their first year in the New World, the Pilgrims conducted an experiment in social engineering akin to what is now contemplated; and, after an abortive attempt at cultivating the land in common, their leaders reflected on the results in a manner that Americans today should find instructive.