I just finished listening to a left wing rant about how our forefathers would be democrats and fight against the tea party movement. After I cleaned up the vomit off of the floor, I decided to go take a look at what they thought of our issues… certainly they existed back then. and of corse, they did.
I decided to start with Thomas Jefferson. so here they are.. Thomas jefferson’s comments on the issues of today.
On the second ammendment.
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
On Michelle Obama’s attempt to control our diet.
Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.
On The Patriot act
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
On Gun Control
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” (Quoting Cesare Beccaria)
On the Second Amendment
The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
On Government Intrusion into our Lives
The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.
On the Proper Limits of the law
No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.
On Socialism (Obama’s brand at that!)
To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.
On Government Freeloaders
I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
On Overreaching Government
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
On Government Activism
I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
On Resisting the Government
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
On the actions of the Pelosi/Reid Congress
The majority, oppressing the minority, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.
On Government Regulation of Industry
Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.
On Religious Zealots using government to force their beliefs into law.
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
On Armed Resistance to Tyrannical Government
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
On the Government trying to “Guarantee Happiness”
Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law,” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.
On Welfare
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
On Taxing people to pay for programs that they do not support
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
On Socialism destroying America
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
On Too Much Government
Most bad government has grown out of too much government.
On Constitutionally Limited Government
The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.
On Government Staying out of our Lives, and our Pockets
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.
On People who Question our form of Government
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?
On the source of our Rights and Liberty
A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
On the Obama Administration
An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.
On the Failure of the Public School System
It is better to tolerate that rare instance of a parent’s refusing to let his child be educated, than to shock the common feelings by a forcible transportation and education of the infant against the will of his father.
On the government’s tendency to destroy our freedom
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
On Chris Mathews
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
It seems to me that Thomas Jefferson would be a member of the Tea Party. Without question. I am thrilled to be keeping such company.
regards all.