What Might The Founders Think?: State of the Union 2019

By Brian Caldwell Fansler

How would the Founders react to President Trump's recent State of the Union address before Congress? How might the Founders feel about a woman as Speaker of the House, or an African-American member in Congress? Would the Founders agree with President Trump on immigration, infrastructure, foreign policy, executive powers, the "politics of resistance", and so much more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Caldwell Fansler
• Release date: Jun 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463395929

Brian Caldwell Fansler

Brian Fansler has been a twenty-plus year California state employee primarily in budgeting and transportation. He is also a long-time volunteer having served in multiple volunteer positions over the last ten-plus years at the Lincoln Memorial Museum Committee, Women Escaping A Violent Environment, the Cordova Recreation and Park District, and currently with the National Park Service and also as a member of the Civil War Trust. Brian's first passion has always been history but that passion was re-discovered while visiting Philadelphia's Independence Hall, Gettysburg National Park, and a host of national and state parks in recent years. Brian was born in Charlottesville, Virginia and has also lived in Lincoln, Nebraska as well as Phoenix, Arizona. Brian has lived in Sacramento, California for the last twenty two years.

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WHAT MIGHT THE FOUNDERS THINK?: State of the Union 2019

By

Brian Caldwell Fansler

Copyright © 2019 by Brian Caldwell Fansler

All Rights Reserved.

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE CONSTITUTION?!

MADAME SPEAKER?!

THE BANE OF A REPUBLIC

RESISTANCE IS AMERICAN

ENERGY IN THE EXECUTIVE

OUTSIDERS

THE WEAKER SEX?

NETWORKING

FLOWERING OF FAITH

NO STANDING

SUMMER OF IMPROV

TABLES TURNED

ROGUE

FAME BY SPECTACLES

A STONE’S THROW

A MOMENT, OR TWO, FOR REBUTTAL

PLAYING THE ROLE OF…..

The date is Tuesday, February 5, 2019 in the City of Brotherly Love—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The city is experiencing unusually warm weather with a high of 67 during the day, although it will drop to a closer-to-normal 32 tonight. The Good King’s Tavern on 7th Street in Philadelphia is only a ten minute walk from Independence Hall, site of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. During the Constitutional Convention, delegates often walked to the tavern after adjourning for the day to socialize, eat, and enjoy an adult beverage, probably not in that order. For the first time in over 220 years, some of those delegates will make a return visit.

At about 6:00pm, many eyes and ears are drawn to an upcoming national address on an electronic contraption not seen in earlier times. A television inside the tavern attracts the attention of not only Americans today but also some former regulars, we call them Founders, now unseen and unheard to anyone but themselves. Yet, at least some of these distinguished gentlemen would sound very familiar to Americans today while a few others, well, not so much.

One of the Founders unfamiliar to most Americans today is Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. Yet ironically, Mr. Pinckney has a direct connection to the upcoming national address.

Welcome to CNN’s Live Coverage of the 2019 State of the Union Address. In a moment, President Trump will address a joint session of Congress and the nation.

Charles Pinckney: Wait, did he just state ‘State of the Union’? That still happens? At the Convention, some of my plan’s ideas and language ended up in the Constitution, including the actual term President. Also, the concept of the President himself presenting an annual State of the Union address to Congress.

Benjamin Franklin: Well done, Mr. Pinckney. But now I have a question (pointing to the television) What is that contraption? It appears to run on a kind of electric power."

Thomas Jefferson: Is this an invention of science?

George Washington: Regardless of what it is, just keep it out of my private affairs.

Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris: (simultaneously) And my bedroom.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: This will be President Trump’s third State of the Union address, since he was elected President in 2016. That election would have been a first one way or the other—either Secretary Clinton would have been elected the first female President, or Mr. Trump would be the first elected President who has never first served in government or in the military.

Edmund Randolph: Is that his way of saying, in either case, we’re screwed?

CNN: Tomorrow night, tune into ‘Out Front: Live From Washington, D.C. with Erin Burnett. What it all means and how it adds up.

Alexander Hamilton: Whoa, who is that?!

Benjamin Franklin: (to the television) Hello, my dear Miss Burnett. Allow me to introduce myself. No doubt you have heard my name. I am Dr. Franklin, but you may call me ‘Papi’.

Gouverneur Morris: (nudging Franklin to the side) Step aside, my good man. She will call me ‘Papi’.

Charles Pinckney: Watch and learn, gentlemen. Let me show you how it is done.

Alexander Hamilton: (sarcastically) I presume that you gentlemen wish to be ‘out front’ with the lady?

George Washington: (rolling his eyes upward at the spectacle others are making of themselves)

John Adams: (to Miss Burnett on the television) My dear lady, can you hear me? Do you know who I am? I am John Adams, the great Patriot of my generation.

Thomas Jefferson: Why has she not responded?

Benjamin Franklin: How fascinating! It appears this contraption only allows for one-way communication. We can receive a signal, but not send one.

John Adams: Can you hear me now, Miss Burnett?

Benjamin Franklin: She cannot hear us, even a voice as obnoxious as yours, Mr. Adams. Extraordinary!

Thomas Jefferson: (sarcastically, in a hushed tone) Word.

Thomas Paine: Ditto.

CNN: Welcome to the 2019 State of the Union Address. Per the Constitution, President Trump will address Congress and the nation.

ALL FOUNDERS PRESENT: CONSTITUTION?!!! WE STILL HAVE A CONSTITUTION?!!!

James Madison: The Constitution still lives?! If the Constitution had lasted 50 years, I would have been happy.

James Wilson: Most of us didn’t think the Constitution would survive ten years. If only I had wagered, then.

John Adams: Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you could finally pay off your debts.

Luther Martin: 225 plus years later and we still don't have anything better? Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit drinking.

Robert Morris: That’s good, Mr. Martin. Open with a joke.

George Washington: When the Constitution was adopted, I did not believe the new government would last 20 years. We were uncertain that the United States would even survive the 1790s.

Alexander Hamilton: Partisanship was at an all-time high then. We nearly had a Civil War before there was a Civil War.

Gouverneur Morris: Do you mean a prequel? Would that be titled a Pre-Civ, or a Civ-quel?

Charles Pinckney: "We intended the Constitution as a temporary plan. We assumed that Americans would eventually settle into a limited monarchy,