I think this mess started with Glen Beck and his high brow history lessons when it was at FOX.
Not to be mean to Glen Beck. He underwent quite a transformation a few years ago when he was quite ill. But, this idea that the past is more important than the future has no place in politics. A History Club might be fun, but, not politics. The history of the country is something to be proud of, but, not something to return to.
I stated this once before, possibly not quite as clearly as here; "The people we have been to allies, friends and each other is possible because of the conscience of our Founders. We are living their conscience. We are living the conscience of many other magnificent American leaders since our Founders. There is no reason to return to the past when we have been given such a bright and promising future."
We need to reach for that future and correct paths of wayward ideas.
The United States of America is a pluralistic society. We always have been. That means we respect the values of others without discrimination, hatred or oppression. That is who we are and that is who we always will be.
"Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable.
1. Without government, as among our Indians.
2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree, and in our states in a great one.
3. Under governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics.
To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the 1st. condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has it’s evils too: the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem ("I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery"). Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government."
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Paris, January 30, 1787
