Well, it would seem as if Donald Trump has more in common with the Founding Fathers than one would have imagined; especially Thomas Jefferson.
Besides having red hair Jefferson gave no quarter to the Barbary Pirates. Not fearing any politically correct retribution by going after a Muslim majority country, he sent a newly created Navy to stop their interference in American trade in the Mediterranean. He was not going to let anyone coerce the young nation into an inferior position on the world’s stage.
Jefferson seized the opportunity to make America greater, literally greater in physical size by spending an unheard of sum to buy Louisiana from France. He was considered foolish; not even knowing what he had bought, and a couple of guys had to be sent out to explore this world Jefferson had brought under the American umbrella.
Jefferson fought with the economists and politicians of his day who wanted large debts and a more centrally controlled economy, along with a concomitant expansion of the central government. He was despised by the Hamilton Federalists, and mostly by Hamilton himself, and was blocked by them as often as they could. In fact the country almost came to open violence in the election of 1800, with the Federalists openly supporting Burr, the other Democratic-Republican Candidate. It was only a back room deal to deny Burr the presidency, which supposedly included agreements to preserve some of Hamilton’s programs that maintained the peace.
The violent Left and their apologists are intent upon destroying the Republic by tearing down and demeaning anything noble that was done by the mortal men who built this country.
Humankind is humankind, and we are all subject to the frailties that accompany our mortal beings. That some of us rise to greatness, most to living out a simple life, and some sink to evil is our history as Homo sapiens. It is both our weaknesses and our strengths that make us who we are. It is both the weaknesses and strengths of our kind that make civilization what it is. It is the daring and the aggressive that have built societies, and the thoughtful and the kind that have tempered aggression. We need both.
Those who believe that eliminating people who strive on a plane higher than most and imposing conformity upon the rest of us will bring about a utopia are fools. Many understand that. Some don’t.
Demeaning the accomplishments of Jefferson because he held Black held slaves at a time when slaves of all colors were held world wide, and because he fathered a child with one in his servitude brings us as a species no closer to someone’s artificial standard of perfection.
I have yet to see anything built by angels. As Robert Browning said, “Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?”
It is the same with President Trump. He is who he is – a flawed being, no more or less than most. But his difference is that he has dared to reinvigorate a spirit that brought into being a great Republic, unlike one ever seen before.
That America is both good and bad, had been good and bad, and will continue to be good and bad, does nothing to diminish its specialness.
Until President Trump is proven to be a criminal who has harmed people in an unconscionable manner – we should do what we can to push aside those who hate this country and speak over them as they have tried to speak over us. There is no moral law that stops good people from shouting more loudly than bad people.
It is now a time for those who understand that loving America is not to love its bad deeds, but to embrace them as one would embrace another human with all their goodness and badness.
I for one am tired of hearing about how bad everyone is but those who believe in a utopian socialist world.
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