An Interview With Thomas Jefferson, Part II

Jefferson Interview, Part II

                                               
Lost In America:  Mr. President, thank you again for granting us this interview.  I trust you had a good night's sleep.

TJ:  Alas, we who have passed to greener pastures no longer enjoy the luxury of mortal sleep.  Instead I spent the latest hours in having a look at your 21st century America.

Lost In America:  May I ask what your impressions are after some 200 years away?

TJ:  I will remind you again of what I spoke of yesterday;  America belongs to the current generation, no longer to mine.   We who came before have no hold nor ownership of your generation.  Having said that, I must say that I am both elated and heartbroken in the America of your century.  Firstly, I marveled at America's capacity to produce grains and foodstuffs sufficient to feed the world!   The technology you have employed and the remarkable gains you have made in agricultural research is beyond me.  Hi-bred corn that yields a hundred times what we could produce from a single field, pest resistant species of crops, farm machinery that has made harvesting your crops a hundred fold less manpower intensive than in my day.  Next, I attended seminars at your research hospitals; the advancement in surgery techniques and in modern medicine are the stuff of dreams!

Yet, your attribution of yesterday regarding our maintaining the institution of slavery led me to tour the "ghettos" of Chicago and New York and Baltimore.  I must confess I was both saddened and angered by what I saw.  In a very few hours I witnessed mob robberies, street war, drug selling and even murder in those environs.  I saw negro youth wearing expensive sports shoes and leather jackets in the streets, then retreating to filthy hovels of residence in great disrepair.  As a student of history I wondered what their spiritual leader, the Dr. King, would have said of them were he alive today.  Would he too be heartbroken that they so readily assume to role of "false martyr" in order to garner favorable treatment and a government check and seem to have such a miserly interest in taking advantage of their freedoms to better themselves?  I witnessed two preachers of hate inciting them to anger toward the white race while failing to condemn their immoral and violent behavior.  It was sad indeed.

Lost In America:  Mr. President, we seem to have a plethora of false gods these days, particularly within our political ranks.  I'm quite curious about your feelings with regard to both of our two major political parties claiming you as their sage?  How do you feel about that?

TJ:  To that I must say "a plague on both of their houses".  It is unconscionable that big government democrats could ever claim me as their "spiritual leader".  Anyone who has read of me would know that I had grave misgivings about the creeping tentacles of government into the lives of the citizen.  I would remind you that, following the Washington years, the first vestiges of the political party systems began to appear.  Adams and Hamilton and their ilk believed in a large and powerful central government.  They began to deem themselves as Federalists and to us, the Whigs, these Federalists seemed all to similar to the King George monarchy.  Having read of later developments, I have learned that those old big government Federalists evolved into your modern day democratic party, a party too willing to dictate what is ethical and moral, which is to say no ethics and no morals,  and far too hungry for political power to care where our nation is headed!  In my wanderings last night I stopped by the Capitol to review the Congressional Record.  I noted that, while the House has passed yearly budgets the Senate has a failed to do so for three years in succession!  How is it possible that such legislative sloth can occur?

And frankly, the Whigs, or Republicans, as you call them, are too much made from the same cloth as the Democrats.  They too, preach against big government, but are as guilty as the Democrats in affecting huge revenue accruals to sponsor and support massive ineffectual programs that are rife with waste and corruption.  Were I forced to make a bad choice between the two parties I would most certainly identify as a Republican for they are making at least minimal effort to stem the tide of government growth.

Were your Congressman Paul not such a wild eyed advocate of legalizing cannabis and all other drugs I would more closely identify with his political philosophies.  He has the right ideas about curbing the runaway spending, returning to the gold system, deploying our military only when a real threat to our nation's security is involved,  and prying the invading hands of big government from our lives.  Alas, I fear America is far too conventional and far too wed to their own special interests to ever elect a Congressman Paul as President.

Lost In America:  Thank you for that candid assessment of our political system, Mr. President.  I assume you are not favorably impressed by either the President or Congress.  What say  you about the Supreme Court, our third arm of the government?

TJ:  The very question you pose reveals a startling ignorance, if I may say so.  Had you read anything of my Presidency you would know that my cousin, Justice John Marshall,  was the U.S. Supreme Court's Chief Justice.  I held the notion that the Supreme Court wielded far too much power in our tri-part system of government.  All one needs is a case read of Marbury versus Madison to see how abusive the rulings of a Supreme Court can be.  My warnings on this 200 years ago may be prophetic as I have seen all manner of perversions be protected under the auspices of liberal court rulings.  Again, I would remind you that I recommended that the U.S. Constitution be rewritten every 20 years to reflect evolving societies.  Were that the case our Republic would not need the iron hand of nine men to determine the fate of a societal disagreement.  I have read the court history of your last 75 years and I am appalled by the courts distorted interpretations of our original Constitution.  I say update your Constitution, have it ratified by the individual states, and live by the dictates of the citizen vote!

Lost In America:  You have been highly critical of all three branches of government.  Having great respect for your wisdom, with your extensive knowledge of modern political philosophies, with your firm grasp of the democratic principles advanced by Locke and Rousseau, I would be greatly interested in what you believe America should do improve our social and political systems.  In our next session I believe we may all benefit by hearing your thoughts on this.

TJ:  Very well, fellow citizen...I look forward to our next session.  Good Day.

NOTE:  PART III, THE FINAL SESSION WITH JEFFERSON WILL APPEAR TOMORROW.  IF YOU ENJOY THIS BLOG PLEASE CONSIDER SIGNING UP FOR DELIVERY TO YOUR INBOX.  SEE EMAIL SIGNUP AT UPPER LEFT.