The media, regardless of their descent, should not be our scapegoat. We are too willing to accept wild haired conspiracies rather than our own shortcomings and faults, and we are more eager and willing to demonize an opposing view than even pretend to understand it. Each side denies their complicity; and both are guilty, but that does not make it acceptable. The media is selling outrage, but we are willing buyers.
Read MoreThe progressive challenges to the founding principles was largely intellectual and ideological; few challenged them on moral grounds. The current revolution of the woke vigilantes now challenges the entire morality of the founding; this is the danger of the 1619 Project and its reflection in the Black Lives Matter organization. By changing the focus of the founding from one of clarifying and protecting rights to one of advancing and protecting slavery they seek to remove any moral authority of the founding and the Declaration of Independence. It is no wonder that the statue toppling Olympics did not stop with the Confederates; Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln were sure to follow.
Read MoreThe progressive effort to remove the obstacles to a purer democracy exposed the faults of democracy. The administrative state moved law making power away from the accountability of an electorate. Deliberation and debate were replaced by referendums and mobs. In frustration the voters sought their objectives from the courts and the executive. It should be no surprise that those contests have become so hostile.
Read MoreThe XYZ Affair brought us to the brink of war and stunned Jefferson when it was released. The author Gordon Woods compared it to the paranoia that gripped the west coast after Pearl Harbor that led to the internment of Japanese Americans. The XYZ memo destroyed public support for the pro French Republican party of Jefferson.
Read More“A strong executive, De Lolme wrote, was the best check against the ambitions of the aristocracy, which always posed a greater threat to the stability of the constitution. Too much democracy did not lead to anarchy but to oligarchy or aristocracy.”
Read MoreWhat threatens us is not the division of factions but the myth of unity, even within a single party. Unity does not rise, it is forced. The will of the people is what their demagogue tells them it is.
Read More“As Adams explained it, the French philosophes had invented the word, which became a central part of their utopian style of thinking and a major tenet in their “school of folly.” It referred to a set of ideals and hopes, like human perfection or social equality, that philosophers mistakenly believed could be implemented in the world because it existed in their heads. Jefferson himself thought in this French fashion, Adams claimed, confusing the seductive prospects envisioned in his imagination with the more limited possibilities history permitted. “
Read MoreIrony is almost synonymous with history. Jefferson feared a large central government, but could not foresee a central government with Jeffersonian values.
Read MoreAdams feared the aristocrats (the elite). Jefferson feared the monarchs. Each thought the other an existential threat. Evan after the constitution was signed we were unclear what kind of government we had and what kind we wanted. We have been trying to complete the job every since.
Read MoreFrom National Review, Hamilton and Jefferson: The Deserving and the Deserter, a fascinating comparison and myth busting comparison between Jefferson adn Hamilton by M.D. Aeschliman “The Constitution did more than just tolerate slavery,” Chernow writes, “it actively rewarded it.” The
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