Thatcher & Broder: Preserve the Constitution and the Common Law

Margaret, Baroness Thatcher of Kestivan and Washington Post columnist David Broder insisted on preserving the common law and "confidence in the rightness of the constitution" at W&M's 203rd Charter Day, Sat. Feb. 4.

The majesty of the law

"The future is not what it used to be," Thatcher began. She seized upon U.S. Circuit Judge Damon J. Keith, who received an honorary law degree, as a token representative of "the majesty of the law. You can't have liberty without the rule of law: otherwise it is only the freedom of the strong to oppress the weak."

One of the free world's most important and difficult tasks, Thatcher said, is "teaching" the Russians and other recently-freed peoples about the nature, and function, of a common law kept by an independent judiciary, for "they know not of that."

Constitutional crisis

Broder said political irresponsibility and gridlock have prompted a much-needed debate on "the fundamental questions" of our constitutional system, such as we have not had since the founding. "Government cannot create values for people who have none of their own," Broder warned. It cannot make us compassionate or brave. He quoted Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "To substitute government for our own absence of moral energy is a prescription for totalitarianism."

A republican system, relying on coalition-building, separation of powers and reasoned debate, is essential, Broder said. That federal system has lately become "confused," so that it now seems "to be designed for maximum cost and minimum efficiency and accountability," but radical "so-called remedies" would "undermine the premises" of the American system, he warned.

For example, he said, the innovation of referendums let a majority impose its will on minorities automatically, without debate or cooperation.

In contrast, America's traditional political system is the freest and most accessible, and "political parties are the most porous institutions in society.... Anyone with a busload of friends" can become the core of a party.

Broder welcomed the "energy" that the Christian right brings to politics, as long as it is "channeled" through the traditional coalition-building system.

The founders "knew we were not angels, so they put in checks and balances, and those checks and balances work," he boasted.

"Thank you for that encouraging and discomforting message," President Sullivan said.

Academics defended

"If we cannot quantify the results," Sullivan continued, "are we expected to apologize for indulging in our love of knowledge? ... The true task of a scholar, so often and so foolishly mocked, is the discovery of new knowledge ... .

"Is some of our scholarship esoteric? Is some of it inaccessible? Does some of it, finally, turn out to be wrong? Of course."

"He who opens the door of a school closes a prison," Marine Biology Professor Robert Graves added.

Most stirringly of all, M-W Professor Lynda Butler read a royal proclamation that urged W&M's trustees to make Virginians fork over the contributions they had promised.