Home > Perspective History's Greatest Insult? by Conservativity Staff, Originally Posted: 5/19/2005 10:35:49 AM Last Updated: 5/19/2005 12:31:43 PM
The Democratic party refers to itself as "the party of Jefferson." This reference is probably some sort of smack against the GOP’s truthful statement that it is "the party of Lincoln." The Democrats looked for an earlier great man to identify as their intellectual founder; Washington and Adams were from different parties. They chose to identify with Jefferson, arguably the greatest of our founding fathers. However, the Democrats’ haughty assertion that they carry on the tradition of the author of our Declaration of Independence, our third President, a face deservedly on Mount Rushmore, is simply an insult to one of our great founders. The Democratic party of today has nothing to do with the philosophies of Jefferson.
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have .... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." -- Thomas Jefferson
If a GOP congressperson were to state that into the Congressional Record without attributing it to Jefferson, the Democrats would likely not recognize it (they seem to be ignorant of our history, which, as Churchill noted, will doom them to repeat it) and deride the statement as "insensitive" and "extreme right wing rhetoric." How do the Democrats reconcile this statement of the person they allege to be their philosophical leader with their present day activities? The leftist Democrats presently seek to prevent the people from investing their own Social Security money into private, proprietary private accounts. What is even worse is that those same leftist congresspersons have created for themselves the "Thrift Savings Plan," virtually identical to that which they reject for the people.
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." -- Thomas Jefferson
But was it not the Democrats, under the ambit of Lyndon Johnson’s "war on poverty," set up numerous programs that did nothing less than transfer assets from the hard workers to those who did not work? Was it not the Democrats who had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, with the GOP’s "Contract with America" welfare reforms? Even Bill Clinton ran his focus groups and polls and signed the welfare reform bill, but promised the leftists that he would "fix" it when they came to power. Well, the people heard that remark and have kept the GOP in control of the House ever since, and, except for a hiccup created by James Jeffords’ defection from the GOP in 2000, the Senate would have continuously been in GOP hands. Nonetheless, in 2002, the people restored the GOP to Senate control at the first opportunity.
"Get the people hooked up to the governmental teat and they will vote for their own selfish interest; that was (is?) the Democrat party philosophy. Keep power by whatever means possible. This explains the Democrats’ complete surprise at the results of 2002 and 2004."
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." -- Thomas Jefferson, Bill for the More General diffusion of Knowledge (1778).
Jefferson’s experience, noted in 1778, compares well to the Democrat control of Congress from 1952-1994. The Democrats passed numerous bills that, when divorced from the pretense that they were to create a "safety net" for the people, could be seen as vote extortion. Get the people hooked up to the governmental teat and they will vote for their own selfish interest; that was (is?) the Democrat party philosophy. Keep power by whatever means possible. This explains the Democrats’ complete surprise at the results of 2002 and 2004. Why did the people vote against their own self-interest and instead in the interest of America as a whole? It could not solely have been because of September 11. While it is true that that evil course of events did bring Americans out of their selfish reverie and helped them to re-ally themselves to our country, I think that Americans have become far better informed than in previous times.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be... if we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed." -- Thomas Jefferson
The leftists, those who support the party that claims loyalty to Jefferson, try with the old-school media to form public opinion in such a manner as to prevent the people from learning the truth. Even now, as Rush, Hannity, Ingraham, Coulter, Eileen Byrne and others gleefully show the hypocrisy of the left, they are derided. Bill Clinton, in 1995, blamed Rush for the Oklahoma City bombing. Fox News is derided as an extreme right wing mouthpiece, notwithstanding its objectively neutral coverage of all news.
"The people, however, followed Jefferson’s advice. In doing so, they rejected the party that claims allegiance to Jefferson."
The people, however, followed Jefferson’s advice. In doing so, they rejected the party that claims allegiance to Jefferson. Since then, the left has pushed "campaign finance reform," ostensibly intended to protect the election process from manipulation by the wealthy, but actually intended to keep the people uninformed and thus protect incumbents from any meaningful challenge to their seats. However, they left a loophole in the law, the 527’s sprung from that loophole, and the bill backfired. The people were better informed than at any time since the inception of the Republic. And the "party of Jefferson" was done in by the people’s following Jefferson’s wisdom!
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." -- Thomas Jefferson
Bush / Gore 2000? One man, one vote? Were we a democracy, the vast majority of the states, and the counties within the states, and the entirety of Rural America, would be under the rule of urbanites. Remember the Democrats’ call in 2000 for the abolition of the electoral college, the very device that protects the rights of small states? Remember that Jefferson, during the Constitutional Convention, made his voice heard through James Madison, his close friend and confidant. The Bill of Rights, which the left seeks to dilute ("what second amendment?" asks the elitist left), was Thomas Jefferson’s idea!
In sum, the Democratic party, stubborn as the jack-ass that is the party’s symbol, claims allegiance to Thomas Jefferson, who was a member of the Democrat-Republican party. However, they desecrate his greatness and his memory in their every action. The Democrats would be better off to claim allegiance to the philosophies of Marx (Karl or Groucho, it doesn’t matter). Remember that Hillary Clinton has recently (inadvertantly or perhaps as a Freudian slip) quoted the Communist Manifesto to explain her philosophy of government’s role vis-à-vis the people.
It’s high time that the Democrats start telling the truth. They either need to actually follow Jefferson or reject him. Were Thomas Jefferson alive today, he would be completely insulted by the Democratic party’s phony allegiance to his philosophies, none of which they actually use to guide themselves.
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