Welcome to the revised edition of

FirstPrinciples.US  

The content of this site is now available in a print version (order form below).  The title 
of the hard copy is:

First Principles: Self-governance in an Open Society

The intent of this website and its companion print edition is to investigate, from a big picture perspective, the state of American, and by extension, democratic representative government around the world.  In the U.S. there are three telling polling realities.  The numbers are not from any single survey, but reflect averages over the past several years.  The first is former President George W. Bush's approval rating--which hovered near 30% his last years in office and President Obama's rating, which has, 3 years into office, dropped below 40%.  The second is the percentage of U.S. adults who believe what they hear in the mainstream media--a figure that rests between 20 and 24%.  The final measure is the approval rating of the U.S. Congress--which often lies between 12 and 14%, with polls since 2008, for the first time ever, showing Congressional approval frequently in the single digits--9%.  

President Abraham Lincoln is often quoted for his observation that you cannot fool all the people all the time, but in the case of Congress, the press, and the White House, it seems they have all fooled themselves into believing they can do something along those lines while achieving an almost exact opposite result.

When fewer than half the people don't like the job the president is doing, that seems believable. To begin with, because the country is somewhat evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, at least half the population is already leaning away from supporting any president from the opposite party--thus it is easy to see why presidential approval ratings historically rest around 50%. How much that number varies from 50% is really a measure of how much the independent voters and the president's own party members approve or disapprove of what the president appears to be doing. And, of course, for the average voter, appearances are almost everything.

When more than three-quarters of Americans disbelieve what the media offers in its content it would seem time for that group to take stock--but they refuse. Whether out of arrogance, self-delusion, or hope that defies reality they often editorialize the news and slant or distort their coverage and reporting in a manner that is both transparent and, apparently, simply not believable.

But the most damning numbers come to the fore in Congressional approval ratings--which have finally dropped, at least for a time, to just 9%. And this is where and when action can and should trump the fantasy world in which members of Congress seem to live. The fact that 91 out of 100 citizens think their representatives are doing a poor or terrible job, and those representatives continue to act as though nothing is different, nothing has changed, and no one cares what they do--means, to use the words of all parents who have ever dealt with teen-age children, it is time for a reality check. A check on the power, actions, intentions, and, yes, corruption of those elected to do the people's business.

First Principles offers a journey back to where all our governing efforts began. It brings to the fore the tools and comprehensions that allow for rational governance in a real world. It returns to square one.

By using the menu bar at the top of this site or the pages of the print version to re-open an  understanding of how government is designed to and can work, each and any citizen can help change our course.  And, if there is one lesson that is made, and is of paramount importance, it is the understanding that every single one of us can make that difference.  We are not hampered by our singular status, in fact, that is our power.  Government is and can be the sum of our many small, individual acts, but those acts must occur. First Principles explores what those actions should be, but most importantly it tells us why and how they must occur. When we understand the "why and how" of government, both its methods and its goals, then actually making government happen in a rational manner becomes not just possible, but real.

Thus, welcome to First Principles. The tools and comprehensions are here for a journey in self-governance that will allow us to leave our children something we know will work--because that was the reality during the American Century, the twentieth century, that we can attain in the twenty-first if only we act.

First Principles: Self-Governance in an Open Society 
Print edition

Visitors to this site are now able to purchase a print copy of First Principles by using the discount coupon below, or by visiting Barnes and Noble: www.bn.com or Amazon.com: www.amazon.com.  Bulk orders, also at a discounted rate, are available directly through this website (3 copies or more).  Simply e-mail your order to editor.firstprinciples@gmail.com, giving us your name and phone contact information, the number of copies and the address to which the books will be shipped, and we will process your request.

The print version has been produced in response to the number of people who have been downloading some or all of the contents of this site. The book offers the entire web version in one volume, and is priced at less than the cost of the ink, paper, and time it takes to retrieve the site's contents from the Internet. There is no difference between the book version and this website and the entire contents of First Principles: Self-governance in an Open Society will continue to be available here.

Our e-mail contact is: editor.firstprinciples@gmail.com and we welcome your comments, suggestions, or questions.

Cordially,                                                                                         

Thomas N. Tripp November 2011