What would the founders do? They'd do lots of things. Different things. For example, James Madison believed the 10th Amendment is the single most important part of the Bill of Rights. Madison would have fit right in with the Tea Party. He was a state's righter before it was cool, and the strongest defender of our right to have big guns. Of course, he also said things like, "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.” Maybe he wouldn't fit in with the Tea Party. I wonder what the Minnesota 56'ers, named for the 56 Founders, would think of Madison's view of the separation of church and state. The 56'ers believe the separation of church and state is a myth, while the one of the founders they devote their club to said this:
“The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.”-James Madison
While James Madison certainly loved the 10th Amendment, Alexander Hamilton thought the entire Bill of Rights should have been thrown out altogether.
I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. --Alexander Hamilton
To act like the founders were monolithic in their though and actions demeans both them and our origins. Conservatives rely on simple, straight forward narratives where black and white are clear. It helps them feel safe. Hamilton also said that the first duty of society is justice. He was quite a guy.
Read on for more of WWTFD
Cross Posted at MNProgressive Project
Thomas Jefferson gives us a wonderful example of the complexity of the Founders. Jefferson staunchly hated income taxes, which conservatives love to quote ad nauseum. However, while condemning taxes in one sentence, Jefferson promotes the inheritance tax. Of course, the conservatives stop reading once they have what they want.
If the overgrown wealth of an individual be deemed dangerous to the State, the best corrective is the law of equal inheritance to all in equal degree ; and the better, as this enforces a law of nature, while extra-taxation violates it.
While the Founders disagreed about many things, there was one thing almost all the divergent Founders could agree. They despised corporate greed, corporate power, and the concentration of wealth. You see, the founders would be appalled at the libertarian growth of our economic monarchs. How can conservatives possibly explain away the similarity in so many of the Founders views?
WWTFD? They would crush these economic monarchs. They would crush them. You can't deny it.
“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance.”
― James Madison
The Tea Party wants to blame public sector workers. Teachers, cops, fire fighters. Were the founders worried about teachers?
"When economic power... became concentrated in a few hands, then political power flowed to those possessors and away from the citizens, ultimately resulting in an oligarchy or tyranny." John Adams
The Founders feared concentration of wealth. Today's conservatives worship it. Literally worship it at prosperity doctrine churches!
"As riches increase and accumulate in few hands . . . the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard." Alexander Hamilton
Again, why aren't conservatives as concerned about inequality as the Founders?
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs."
- Thomas Jefferson
Yep. Bankers and hedge fund managers, unregulated, almost destroyed our nations economy. Not public sector workers.
Finally, not a Founder, but Republicans go to President for diversity cred:
"As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." Abraham Lincoln
And, of course, the wisest answer of all: Balance.
"Truth is not to be found either in traditional capitalism or in Marxism. Each represents a partial truth. Historically, capitalism failed to discern the truth in collective enterprise and Marxism failed to see the truth in individual enterprise." Martin Luther King Jr.