Hallmark, Harmon, Callie, and I all roadtripped to San Antonio today for a trip to the Alamo.  Harmon, Hallmark's friend from grad school days, had never been to the Alamo.  For someone educated at the Claremont Graduate School in the fields of political philosophy and international politics, the Alamo should be high on the list of things to do!  The rhetoric of the famous letter for help from Colonel Travis, for example, is Lincolnian or Churchillian in its tenor.  The independent nature of those fighters in the Alamo is rightly a source of pride, to Texans and to political theorists of the Claremont variety.   The valor displayed at the Alamo is also righltly a source of pride.  I think Harmon enjoyed all of these things. 

Again, I was reminded of a writing project I need to work on -- analyzing the Texas founding documents of political liberty.  I think it would be a fascinating exercise, and my training under Don Lutz has prepared me beautifully to do such a study.  It would make a wonderful dissertation topic -- and an easy one -- had I not already embarked on this tome on Progressive constitutionalism.

So back to the Alamo... which we visited, along with the riverwalk.  I was pleased because I found a packet of parchment Texas political documents including the Texas Declaration of Independence, for which I have been searching for a while now.  I think it will look quite lovely sitting above my desk on the corner wall adjacent to the wall proudly displaying my parchment copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.   During our trip, we visited the riverwalk and had lunch at Dick's Last Resort.   I've heard a lot about the place, but never had been.  It's fun!  The waitstaff is rude, and the customers are expected to be rude.  But it's all in good fun, and the food was excellent:  the burgers rival Cosmo's Cafe in the Heights here in Houston as the best I've had this year!.

We roadtripped back for a lovely evening of conversation, steak, and wine at Taste of Texas.  We were talking at one point about the subject of realigning elections, and Hallmark's thesis that the conditions no longer exist for a realigning election, as defined in the literature.  We also discussed Jaffa's thesis (from an article I've sadly never read) that there is something fundamental in two party systems for democratic nations -- that is to say, two-party systems by their very nature are legitimate because they are always operating on the principle of a legitimate majority (unlike multiparty parliamentary systems).  There are a couple of thoughts on this point:  1) this point needs fleshed out big-time in a normative, political theory context and 2) a close institutionalist study of both the Federalist and early Constitutionalism bringing this question of two-party government to bear might be a fascinating -- and very important -- study.

We discussed any number of other interesting topics, including but not limited to the Shining Path movement in Peru, Fujimori's peculiar circumstance of having destroyed terrorism in Peru and just at the time one would think he would be declared a national hero, is on the verge of being voted out (Harmon had a relevant Churchill quote that escapes me today), the worst places to do oil and gas business in the world (Russia, Congo-Kinshasa, Colombia to name a few), whether Colombian leader Pastrana is really a democratic and the extent to which the U.S. should be aiding him in his anti-drug efforts, and many other fascinating topics.  It was truly a fine evening.

Indeed, this entire weekend has been a fine one.  A friend of a friend sent me a very kind email last night regarding the website and journal entries and such, and I suspect he and I are on our way to being fast friends.  Thanks Don.  Overall, I've talked to a lot of thoughtful people over the weekend, and can't wait to pull them all together again soon.  I think Sunday calls for a bit of dissertation work, as I just heard from Don Lutz and it's time to get cracking on my promise to him that I should be done by this fall!

Copyright (c) 2000, Kevin L. Whited