Dear Angry American, Joining Tea Party NOT Your Only Option

What scares me is less government for the sake of less government, without any thought to the long-term consequences of less government. It sounds good when you say it, but the reality can bite you in the ass. Less taxes are a pipe dream. Have you EVER in your entire life seen less taxes that weren't the result of smoke a mirrors (start a trillion dollar war but give everyone a tax break so they don't think about the war). More personal responsibility scares me -- like having to be more responsible for hundreds of dollars of stuff for school that the schools used to provide, to be responsible for paying for extra curricular programs that the school use to provide for free, being responsible for paying for things out of pocket that used to be free. No government handouts scares me. I'm depending on Social Security and Medicare and student loans. If I end up unemployed, I hope to be able to get unemployment until I can find a job.

All the Tea Party feelgound buzzwords sound good, but it's scary to think about what it will do to the country in the long run. Personally, I'd rather see the effort put into getting rid of, or limiting the contributions of, lobbyists in government. Special interests are going to run this country into the ground.

Wayne Harrison wrote:

RCCL wrote:

Wayne Harrison wrote: Well all you have to do is find where Jefferson said it or wrote it. I found where Gerald Ford said it. If he was quoting Jefferson, you'd think he'd give him credit, but then we are talking about Gerald Ford.

Like I said the sentence doesn't sound remotely like something someone in the 18th Century would say.

Actually... it sounds a lot like something he'd say.

I think you're confusing what his views were with what English was in the 18th Century. I meant it doesn't sound like a sentence constructed in the 18th Century.

Ah, I see. You're arguing whether or not it's a paraphrase, not whether or not he may have actually said it! My fault!

On that note, you're probably more than right! We don't really have professional orators anymore (much to the detriment of society, in my opinion!). It was a whole different world back then in terms of language, speech, and literature.

I did decide to look up one of Jefferson's inaugural speeches, if you're interested:
http://www.princeton.edu/~tjpapers/inau ... final.html

My argument was that Jefferson was against Federalism, and based upon the research I have done, I would deem it very possible he said something akin to what is now quoted. The same things happens throughout time, all quotes are, unless with proven record to the contrary, paraphrased. For a modern example, consider Sun Tzu's "The Art Of War". If you were to look up quotes, you would find many variations of the same idea. The question should not be "Would he have said it in this way", but "does it sound feasible that this person, in this context, at this time, would have felt in such a way that he would say these things?"

I'll keep an eye out for the attributed quote or literature that confirms the quote. No luck yet, but I'll bet its out there somewhere!

Thanks for the link. I love reading the actual words of our founding fathers.

I think Jefferson was on the right track politically, being an anti-Federalist and laying the groundwork for what would eventually become the Democratic Party. His new Democratic-Republican Party invented some of the campaign and organizational techniques that were later adopted by the Federalists and became standard American practice. It was especially effective in building a network of newspapers in major cities to broadcast its statements and editorialize its policies. That was back when the press took a stand on issues.

Jefferson laying the groundwork for the Democratic Party, now there is a stretch or did the Dems just not read anything he said? He may have been the underlying thought behind the Libertarian Party and Constitution Party, but Democrats, get real.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic ... ican_Party

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic ... _States%29

Read, Grasshopper.

Wayne, the Democrats are the party of government without limits, not at all what Jefferson believed in.

And wiki as a source, the write-in source that changes daily?

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... ilton.html

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Democratic_party.aspx

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/ent ... _Jefferson

http://www.examiner.com/american-histor ... -1787-1800

http://thejeffersondemocrat.com/

Wayne, you're so good at posting links, here is aquestion that I would like answered. If you believe that Thomas Jefferson (or is it another Jefferson that you refer to) was the thoughts behind the Democratic Party, where did it go so horribly wrong?

It went wrong when Americans decided to elect more Democrats than Republicans to House and Senate seats, thereby giving Democrats free reign and destroying the checks and balances that are needed in our government.