College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Democracy/Government

With all the trouble and problems going on across North Africa, I have heard several media pundits calling and analyzing about the future of these countries and the possibility of a Jeffersonian Democracy…..most of them are conservs or right leaning Dems…..but what do they mean by “Jeffersonian Democracy”?

First of all, it is these pundits trying yet again to deify Jefferson and his ideals…….trying to link ALL democracy to the system set up by Jefferson…..secondly, that is total CRAP!

In its core ideals it is characterized by the following elements, which the Jeffersonians expressed in their speeches and legislation:

• The core political value of America is representative democracy; citizens have a civic duty to aid the state and resist corruption
• Americans had a duty to spread what Jefferson called the “Empire of Liberty” to the world, but should avoid “entangling alliances.”
• The national government is a dangerous necessity to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; it should be watched closely and circumscribed in its powers.
• The wall of separation between church and state is the best method to keep religion free from intervention by the federal government, government free of religious disputes, and religion free from corruption by government.
• The federal government must not violate the rights of individuals.
• The federal government must not violate the rights of the states.
• Freedom of speech and the press is the best method to prevent the tyranny of the people by their own government.
• A standing army and navy are dangerous to liberty and should be avoided; much better was to use economic coercion such as the embargo.
• The United States Constitution was written in order to ensure the freedom of the people. A strict view of how the constitution was written is kept. However, “no society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation.”
• All men had the right to be informed, and thus, to have a say in the government. The protection and expansion of human liberty was one of the chief goals of the Jeffersonians. They also reformed their respective state systems of education. They believed that their citizens had the right and should be educated no matter their circumstance or status in life.

Just a bit of what I guess we could call Jeffersonian democracy…….but is there more?

Yep, it has come to mean limited government and other such conserv ideals that they push for in every election….no matter the ideals Jefferson was a bit of a hypocrite…..the Louisiana Purchase expanded the role of government…..his Embargo Act of  1807 and the fact that he continued to hold slaves even when he constantly voiced opposition…..

I think that Jefferson’s own words tell where he was standing on the political philosophy of the day….”The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature… Every one, by his property, or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public affairs, and a degree of freedom, which, in the hands of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and destruction of everything public and private.”  (Does not sound like a person that actually believes in limited government)……

I know that many will not agree with me….for I will NOT deify Jefferson….and I see his Republican movement as…… by contrast, were more concerned about the preservation of the relatively democratic distribution of the nation’s wealth.  While they had always advocated freeing oceanic commerce and providing foreign markets for the farmers, they believed that Federalists had rendered the United States subservient to Britain and had actually preferred a gradual reintroduction of hereditary rule.

To pretend that Jeffersonian democracy is some sort of perfect democracy is just plain wrong!  There is NO such thing as a perfect democracy…..if it were then there would NOT be a democracy……

So what part of Jeffersonian democracy does the Right keeping hoping for the Middle East….the expansionism?  How about the return to hereditary rule?  Just what does the Right want for the Middle East?  You can bet that it is NOT a participatory democracy!