tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5021648510751417000.post7098928586662833549..comments2023-11-02T06:38:44.129-06:00Comments on What Would the Founding Fathers Do?: If only Democrats listened to JeffersonDoug Haginhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02549881668152726707noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5021648510751417000.post-15928969731813906332010-03-16T02:19:15.325-06:002010-03-16T02:19:15.325-06:00I don't think Jefferson would think much more ...I don't think Jefferson would think much more of Republicans these days than Democrats. For example:<br /><br />"Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government."<br /><br />"Delay is preferable to error." (hello, Dick Cheney)<br /><br />"Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor."<br /><br />"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology."<br /><br />"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."<br /><br />"In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty."<br /><br />"The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force."<br /><br />"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched."<br /><br />"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State."<br /><br /><br />Live by Bartlett's, die by Bartlett's. Few Republicans would put these quotes up on their web sites. The founders were complicated men, and trying to claim any of them for your own political cause is a stupid endeavor. By all means read them and learn from them, but they won't be reduced to a right-wing self-help guide, no matter how much you cherry pick from their writings.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12183343231948580384noreply@blogger.com