You are currently browsing the daily archive for April 29th, 2008.
One of the things that is standing out to me as I watch John Adams on HBO, Starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, is that history as people like to proclaim it does not fit together as neatly as we would like.
Often in debates about “the course of our nation”, people evoke the Founding Fathers, our country’s most popular team of Superheroes. Well, they were the guys who put our government together, anyhow. What caught me off guard I guess was just how different each of the founding fathers were in their attitudes and expectations of the potential government could be. When debates erupt, people will call back to the founding fathers and declare how upset they would be with our government. Conservatives and liberals alike are guilty of talking like the Founding Fathers were of a single mind.
But to be honest, I am sure more than one or two would lay a smackdown on America not for the largeness of modern government-but for having gone into Iraq. Some would be appalled at the size of the government or entitlements or the welfare state and so on. Different Founding Fathers would be angry about different things, and not all the things we assume they would be upset about would necessarily have universal outrage among the Founding Fathers. Yet, people cite them as if it proved their argument infallible.
And frankly, based on common criticisms made these days? The founding fathers would not have a shot in hell at being elected. mainly, people would accuse them of being elitists, what with their fancy edu-macations.
Anyways, John Adams on HBO, solid stuff.
