The more history I read, the deeper my appreciation grows for the unique form of democratic capitalism we have created in this country over the past 240 years. 

Since the founding in 1776, our vision of democracy has spread worldwide. Sometimes it has worked, although often it hasn’t. The list of others’ failures is a reminder of how precious and fragile our system truly is. 

Which brings me to the subject of today’s column: The Greater Des Moines Partnership is planning an eight-day, three-city tour designed to give 10 Central Iowa leaders a greater understanding of what makes our government and economy so unique. 

On Sept. 18-25 the group will visit sites in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., where our national foundation was laid between 1776 and 1800. They will also meet with educators at the Wharton School of Business and Kennedy School of Government, as well as with political and business leaders, to learn more about how the American dream has played out.  

The trip is timely, given the current political focus on the founders’ original intent for matters ranging from the U.S. Supreme Court to foreign entanglements and economic policy.

Joseph Jones, the partnership’s public policy guru, put the tour together and is calling it “Democracy Boulevard Since 1776.” The cost is $2,500, not including transportation to Boston or the return trip from Washington. 

Jones said the idea evolved from strategy sessions last year about “what we could do at the Partnership to get more civic engagement.”

Jones, local architect Joe Benesh and others brainstormed ideas and decided to pattern their effort after overseas trips that the American Council of Young Political Leaders has sponsored annually since 1966 for emerging U.S. leaders. (Jones is a graduate of ACYPL.) 

Instead of going abroad and meeting with foreign leaders, though, the Iowans will meet with U.S. policymakers and historians.  The trip will visit historic landmarks where George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and others created our system of government, Benesh said.

Sarah Ramsey, government affairs officer at United Way of Central Iowa, will make the trip and hopes to “combine history with talking to new and different people about how they shape policy and their decision-making structures.”

“Our nation is unique,” said Benesh, who will also be on the trip. “We’ve come through all of these periods of volatility, and the personalities who made it happen are all just extraordinarily interesting.” 

A few seats remain, so contact Jones if you are interested.

A gutsy innovator: Gene Stanbrough, who died May 3 at the age of 82, was an innovative real estate broker who built a thriving business that went toe-to-toe with Bill Knapp’s Iowa Realty from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Knapp biographer Bill Friedricks credits Stanbrough with several local market firsts, including a partnership with Better Homes and Gardens magazine and the metro area’s original Sunday morning TV home show. 

“The Home Show” began airing on WHO-TV in March 1961, 15 minutes before sportscaster Jim Zabel’s popular “Let’s Go Bowling.” Local TV personality Bob Williams was the host, with each broadcast costing a mere $80, according to Friedricks.

By the mid-1980s, Stanbrough was selling nearly as many homes as Iowa Realty. But he overreached in 1983 when he acquired two savings and loans — First Financial in Knoxville and Scandia Savings in Des Moines. He bundled the ownership with his brokerage, which was renamed First Realty. Stanbrough did not realize how deeply insolvent the S&Ls were, and when the saving and loan crisis roared to life a few years later, he was unable to save the banks or his real estate agency. First Realty is now owned by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, which also owns Iowa Realty.