Interview With Thomas Jefferson, Part III

                                                   

Lost In America:  We now begin Part III, and the last session of my interview with the third President of The United States, the principal author of our Declaration of Independence and a founding father who most consider to be the wisest and most talented of the original founders.

Mr. President, welcome again.  Since I know you have advised that this will be your last interview session with us I am going to be parsimonious with my questions to allow you the time and latitude to address what we have been eager to learn from you; your sage advice on how to maintain, and prosper from, the political and social foundation you and our other founding fathers laid out more than two hundred years ago.

TJ:  First of all, I want to thank you all for honoring me by indicating your interest in my opinions of your America, mine no longer.  Having anticipated your question, I have given a great deal of thought to what I might say to you that might be of benefit as you struggle to develop and maintain a society and political system that works best for you, just as we did over 230 years ago in old Philadelphia.

I would first say that, while I am not a rigidly religious man (the critics of my time deemed me atheist; an unfair charge),  I do believe that a society must maintain a firm sense of morality.  Let us, for the sake of the non-believers, call it cosmic karma; an unknown force that tends to value and reward those societies that honor productivity, hard work, good humor, decency to his fellow man, compliance with both the laws of nature and the laws of a responsible government, and a strong acceptance in the belief that freedom cannot be expected to be granted, but must be earned over and over again.  I believe America must regain that "karma", that of the creator's blessing, if she is ever to be restored to past greatness!

I truly believe that the reason America, and Americans, prospered was because we gained favor by our creator by making an honest effort to charter a system of government that abounded in valuing the individual citizen.  Once we secured our independence from Britain, we founding brothers sat down and discussed, and believed in the idea that we could begin a new nation, unlike any that ever existed on earth.  Accordingly, we studied those republican and democratic principles espoused by Locke and Rousseau, and others and carved out our founding documents that invested the power of state in the people.  Because of that effort, our creator blessed this country with the bounty of farm and forest and mineral deposits.... but the greatest bounty of all was the industriousness of the American citizenry.  Further to our blessings were the waves and waves of immigrants who had heard of the American dream and came to partake!

As I see it, America today is drowning in miasma of moral ambivalence.  While she still houses the productive, the brilliant, the innovators and the believers in American tradition, their numbers are rapidly dwindling as your government wields an ever increasing iron fist toward those who opt not to live under the umbrella of government dependence.  Based on what I see you are rapidly reaching the point where those who profit from government largess (largess taken from you!) will soon be the voting majority.  Should that happen there is little hope to avoid the socialist oppression that now, and has always plagued Europe.

How might America shed the yolk of big government oppression?  How shall America re-ignite the spark of innovation and productivity that she once enjoyed?  How might you re-gain the country that served as the envy of the world for two centuries?

You must first involve your citizenry.  You must galvanize a "Tea Party" so massive as to overwhelm the nay sayers and the false accusers.  I have little doubt that if you raise the percentage of voter participation of those eligible to vote to 75% of the electorate, vice the less than 50% now, America could succeed in throwing out the tyrants and the politicians and elect "statesmen"; an elected who would vote what's best for America, and not what's best for the next election cycle!  I hear the empty moans of those who preach compromise in Washington; I say no compromise to any efforts to maintain the status quo.  It has not worked economically or politically or socially for thirty plus years!  Throw out all the old boys that, espouse the principles of responsive government, then reach across the congressional aisles with a nod and a wink and go out to be wined and dined by the special interests who feed their campaign chests!

Secondly, "make immorality pay for itself"; do not reward it, do not subsidize it, do not condone it!  Oh, I'm not talking about some of the moral rants against gay marriage or religious mandates or dictating how one should live or what they shall believe in.  I'm talking about this!:

1) Say to an unmarried man or woman who chooses to have kids they can't afford that, here to fore, the government will no longer subsidize their bad decisions.  No more free medical, no more free dental, no free day care, no more child tax credits that reward breeding.

2) Say to an alien invader.  We will enforce our immigration laws.  We will no longer listen to the moans and groans of the pseudo destitute.  We will punish those employers who hire you and we will seek you out and imprison you for a period not of your liking, and not merely deport you so that you may invade again.

3) Amend the 14th Amendment to clarify who is really an American citizen.  Say to those who invade simply to breed an anchor baby, you are illegal and so is your child.  Deal with the past laxity of enforcement for those children already here by granting them citizenship only if they volunteer to serve in our armed forces or our peace corp.  If they feel no obligation of citizen service tell them to seek their future elsewhere!

4) Eliminate the IRS.  Eliminate the corrupt income tax which unfairly favors the very  rich and the very poor and pseudo poor.  Implement a national sales tax (food excepted)  which catches all in their web; all those who hide and shelter income.  If you can afford a big screen tv, an IPOD or a gaming system, or a new car you can afford to pay some taxes.  This method also insures every citizen, having contributed even a minimal amount,  will now care about how government spends their taxes!

5) Continue your care for the elderly and disabled but stop paying the medical bills and old age pensions to millionaires and billionaires; they do not need it...and America can't afford it!

6) Establish a Government Audit Administration (GAA).  This agency will employ auditors who are compensated only by their achievements in identifying government waste in all government programs.  Offer generous bonuses to these auditors who uncover fraud, waste and abuse, and give them the authority to halt spending immediately and prosecute offenders when they find fraud, waste and abuse.

7)  Hold Congress responsible for any court decision to be deemed not in compliance with our Constitutional principles.  When court decisions are employed to "legislate", forward those court decisions so that Congress can override those decisions through the legislative process.

8) Decentralize the administration of federal programs.  Fund and transfer management of social welfare programs to the states so that a level of government "closer to the ground" can more efficiently manage dispensation and more quickly adapt to changing economic conditions.

9) Eliminate the federal Department of Education.  Most school funds already come from state and local districts and they should have a greater say in managing their school systems; they should not have to bow to the autocracy of bureaucrats in Washington D.C.

10) Finally, force Congress to pass a Constitutional Amendment that mandates balancing of the federal budget.  Send the amendment to the states for ratification immediately!

TJ:  I have listed ten suggestions that I believe America needs to implement.  They are not all encompassing...but you have an idea of the kind of actions I would promote were I still holding Presidential office.  I have espoused my philosophy regarding the absolute necessity of maintaining a societal morality.  What you Americans choose to do will be dependent on the level of your concern.  God's blessings to you and God bless America.

Lost In America:  Thank you, Mr. President.

Quotes from Thomas Jefferson:

"To cultivate peace and maintain commerce and navigation in all their lawful enterprises; to foster our fisheries and nurseries of navigation and for the nurture of man, and protect the manufactures adapted to our circumstances; to preserve the faith of the nation by an exact discharge of its debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same care and economy we would practise with our own, and impose on our citizens no unnecessary burden; to keep in all things within the pale of our constitutional powers, and cherish the federal union as the only rock of safety--these, fellow citizens, are the landmarks by which we are to guide ourselves in all our proceedings. By continuing to make these our rule of action, we shall endear to our countrymen the true principles of their constitution, and promote a union of sentiment and of action equally auspicious to their happiness and safety." --Thomas Jefferson: 2nd Annual Message, 1802. ME 3:348


"May [our Declaration of Independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government... All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson to Roger C. Weightman, 1826. ME 16:181