Thoughts on the Founders

I just finished a book titled What Would the Founders Do?by Richard Brookhiser. I picked it up for sale at a Borders a while ago and just chipped away a few pages at a time. Brookhiser is an educated fellow when it comes to the founding fathers of the United States and he has written many other books about guys like George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris.

Basically, he takes modern day issues; drugs, gun control, religion, war, taxes and so on and explains how the founding fathers, with their principles, knowledge and society would have thought and acted.

I've always held these men in high regard. After all, they laid the foundation for this nation. They were incredibly intelligent and forward thinking. They saw America as an example to the world. Going through school, unless you are a history major, chances are all you ever learn about Jefferson, Franklin and the likes is the Revolution, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. But this book gave some insight into the politics, the feuds and honest to goodness beliefs of these guys.

While I often think of this generation as a group of gentlemen, I found that many were quite weaselly and as unsavory as today's politicians. Many had extramarital affairs, owned slaves and thought nothing of it, killed colleagues in duels. They often tried to destroy each others careers. Yes, politics hasn't changed much in over 200 years.

This was a group that said all men are created equal, so it would reason that any one could make as much an impact on history if they were willing to work and study as hard as the founders. Certainly, there are very intelligent men working in our government today, as well. There are differences in many areas between today's politicians and the founders, but the biggest is intent.

Watching all the to-do about the presidential primaries has worn on me, and we are still nearly a year away from the election. Every one seems so self serving. And that's the biggest difference. Our founders, while not perfect, were building a nation not for themselves (as they were getting on in years), but they were building it for a future. Even the most ardent of non-believers (Thomas Paine) suggested that America was in God's plans. John Adams even told a young politician that he saw no reason why any other generation couldn't be better than the fathers.

George Washington had no intention of being all-powerful and remembered in the history books. Remember, he turned down the chance to be king and bowed out of the presidency after two terms even though there was no law at the time saying he couldn't continue. It wasn't about the self, it was about a greater ideal that the founders thought every one deserved: liberty.

Do you think Hilary, Barack and the rest are after the same thing?