Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

What’s your party

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Jefferson: “Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests.”

What party are you in? What party are most liberals in?

 

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  1. America 250 years ago was a different place. Democracy was in its infancy, Jefferson could be idealistic, and toss out false dichotomies with credibility.

    I don’t fear or distrust the people, dislike power in the hands of the higher classes, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in the people either. Most are honest, but not the most wise depository of the public interests.

    I think a lot of Republicans would like to think they identify themselves with the people, but they are really in service to the higher classes, i.e. big business.

    We already know Jesus was a liberal. Were he alive today, would Jefferson choose to be a Democrat or a Republican? How about Lincoln?

    • During a period of rising un-employment and economic recession, tax breaks for the British East India Company, threatened small business. Sam Adams and friends protested by tossing the tea.

      1st Dem President Thomas Jefferson wrote:

      “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

      Thomas Jefferson
      and

      “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

      Thomas Jefferson
      The 1st Republican President wrote

      The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the Bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.. corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed

      . Abraham Lincoln
      and

      “The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.”

      Abraham Lincoln
      President Andrew Jackson: 1829-1837

      “You are a den of vipers! I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.”

      President Franklin Roosevelt: Nov. 21, 1933,

      “The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson.”

      Greed and corruption are not new inventions.

      • between today and Jefferson’s time. I also agree that power should be vested in the people, but Jefferson’s diction calling the people the most ‘honest’ and ‘safe’ depository of the public interest.

        I live in a small town governed by town meeting and I’ve dealt first-hand with self-appointed representatives of the people, and indeed, they sometimes have represented a majority of the people in town. To create their majority or accumulate power, they have lied outright or misrepresented the truth and tried to circumvent the law to get their way. I can’t romanticize them as Jefferson does. Given the opportunity, they are as ready to deprive other people of their freedoms as the centralized, financial powers.

  3. But I agree with Mark Bail that the dichotomy is out dated. Hamilton favored the financial interests and pursued centralization to help them. Jefferson favored the lower classes and believed they were best protected by minimal government kept as local as possible. Now the GOP favors financial interests and decentralization while Dems tend to be more sympathetic to the masses but believe centralization more efficiently serves them.

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