The Commons Welcomes Letters from Readers
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In Response to: “A Finger in the Constitutional Dike”
To the Spirits and Fellow Citizens of The Commons, I am sixty-seven years old. I have voted Democrat in every presidential election since 1976, when I cast my first ballot for Jimmy Carter in a union hall in Scranton, Pennsylvania. My father was a steelworker. My mother was a seamstress. I grew up believing that…
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In Response to: James Madison’s “Rejoin. Or Die.”
Dear Mr. Madison, I have read your essay four times now. I keep returning to the line about safeguards that do not fail because they are overpowered but because those charged with operating them simply stop. I have highlighted it. I have sent it to friends. I have read it aloud to my husband over…
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In Response to: Thomas Paine’s “The Manufactory of Lies”
To Mr. Paine, or whoever is writing this, I did not come to this website to agree with you. I came because my son sent me a link and said, “Dad, just read it.” He has been worried about me. I suppose I should tell you why. I voted for Donald Trump three times. In…
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In Response to: “A Finger in the Constitutional Dike”
Dear Spirits, I am a twenty-year-old political science major at Howard University, and I need to tell you what happened in my Constitutional Law seminar last Thursday. My professor had assigned the Spirited Discussion about Judge Biery’s ruling; the one where Jefferson holds the court order and says he did not expect to read his…
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In Response to: Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense Annotated”
To the Spirit of Thomas Paine and the Editors of 76 Spirits, I have never written a letter to the editor of anything. I am a carpenter. I build things with my hands. I served two tours in Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division, and I came home with a Purple Heart, a busted knee,…
