A serious question about what Thomas Jefferson might think
There is a lot of discussion about what the U.S.'s "Founding Fathers" (no women need apply) would think about the "Trump Revolution 2", largely fueled by the mythological revisionist history of our founding from both ends of the ideological spectrum.
I would like to narrow the discussion--and hopefully a rational discussion--to what Thomas Jefferson would think, considering two of his more famous quotes:
1. Perhaps we need a Revolution every decade of so. Did he envision a violent one like the country had just gone through, a total re-examination of everything the government does much like zero-based budgeting and innovative audits in the private sector, or a turbulent political upheaval as we are likely to see under Trump?
2. There were no political parties (unless you consider the Federalist movement and writings of Hamilton and Madison a party) when the Constitution was written, and the VP was whomever got the second highest amount of Electoral Votes. (The idea of President & VP being of the same party and running on the same ticket didn't come into being until the 12th Amendment in 1803). When Jefferson founded the first political party--the Democratic Republicans--to oppose the Federalist efforts to build a strong central government, he declared that political parties were a necessary evil. Given how the two major political parties essentially have gamed the election processes to keep smaller parties from gaining any traction, was he prescient about what he was unleashing?
I would like to narrow the discussion--and hopefully a rational discussion--to what Thomas Jefferson would think, considering two of his more famous quotes:
1. Perhaps we need a Revolution every decade of so. Did he envision a violent one like the country had just gone through, a total re-examination of everything the government does much like zero-based budgeting and innovative audits in the private sector, or a turbulent political upheaval as we are likely to see under Trump?
2. There were no political parties (unless you consider the Federalist movement and writings of Hamilton and Madison a party) when the Constitution was written, and the VP was whomever got the second highest amount of Electoral Votes. (The idea of President & VP being of the same party and running on the same ticket didn't come into being until the 12th Amendment in 1803). When Jefferson founded the first political party--the Democratic Republicans--to oppose the Federalist efforts to build a strong central government, he declared that political parties were a necessary evil. Given how the two major political parties essentially have gamed the election processes to keep smaller parties from gaining any traction, was he prescient about what he was unleashing?
80-89, M
