THE JOHN ADAMS SOCIETY

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Melvin R. Welch     Leopold X. Keiser     Christopher T. Wolff    Marina Wolff
           Chairman                 Secretary                    Chief Whip                  Chancellor

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May 22, 2024
Location: Burger Moe’s, St. Paul

“Most well-adjusted, sane men would be hesitant to take a job where their decisions would so drastically affect the lives of so many. But not me.”          

― The Whitest Kids U’ Know, “Clint Webb for Senate” skit by Trevor Moore (d. 2021)

 

MORALITY IS NOT ON THE BALLOT. The 2024 general election is only six months away, and the incumbent president is Joe Biden or perhaps an animatronic replica thereof.  The leading challenger is, with increasing likelihood, former president Donald J. Trump.  Both men have led extremely public lives, and neither man’s life has been at all morally exemplary.  

 

And how could the President of the United States be anybody else? The great swamp we call Washington, D.C. is navigable only by swamp creatures, after all. Politics is a dirty but necessary job: a high-stakes game of wars and taxes, of difficult compromises and no-win decisions. Making choices that ruin or even end the lives of others is part of ruling a nation; is it any wonder that Machiavelli’s The Prince has never gone out of print? Conservative voters know well of promising Representatives abandoning professed principles within a year. Did they ever have any principles to begin with? Can ever a person bear the indignities and tribulations and moral compromises of the campaign trail, unless he or she lusts above all else for wealth and power over his or her fellow countrymen?

 

ON THE OTHER HAND, history shows us that not every democratically elected official is a power-hungry monster. Indeed, many of the Founding Fathers served humbly as Presidents, and without their wise leadership our nascent union may not have survived those first decades. Sensible, responsible, morally upstanding representatives and leaders are indeed difficult to find in America’s history — but not impossible. Some of our leaders even held on to their professed principles! We’ve voted for the infinitesimally lesser of two evils for long enough. If immoral leaders betray the trust of those they lead, revolution must follow.

 

THE CHAIRMAN, whose motives in leading our Antient and Honourable John Adams Society are most indubitably pure and unalloyed by any base desire for power or selfglorification, has called a caucus to debate the following proposition:

 

RESOLVED:  Political leaders must be immoral leaders.

The Debate will be held on Wednesday, May 22, 2024, at Burger Moe’s, 242 West 7th Street, St. Paul, MN.(back room).  The Chancellor and Chairman encourage people to arrive prior to 7 o'clock p.m. and to thank our host venue by spending money while partaking of food and drink. The debate will begin at half past seven. There is no dress code; however, gentlemen who wish to speak must wear a tie, and ladies are encouraged to adhere to a similar sartorial standard. For those gentlemen arriving sans tie yet wishing to discourse on the resolution, the Purveyor of Ties will keep on hand several remarkable selections.
Questions regarding debate caucus procedures or about the John Adams Society itself may be directed to the Chairman at (612) 741-3272 or the Secretary at (281)-229-3671.