As a lineal descendant of Thomas Jefferson through his eldest daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph, I have watched with increasing concern as the Founders of this country have been undermined and discredited over the last decade or so. I have also watched the concurrent undermining of our Constitution and the insidious effort to dumb down our people to the point where Ben Franklin's warning about security being chosen over liberty ensuring we would have neither has become a reality. I have spent several years all told in researching the deliberate warping and twisting of American history to serve the interests of the neocon cause, and how successful they have been - and how many tentacles reach into places the average person would not expect. Suffice it to say, Monticello is occupied territory!
I have been debating whether or not I should write this diary for several years. I think that people will be surprised to discover the extent to which our American history has been co-opted to serve the all-important neocon agenda. I feel that now the time is right - many things that were once thought to be "tin-foil" or far out are now understood to be for real.
We have come to the point where what the neocons are - what they believe, and what their agenda is - is becoming understood more widely. Their elitist take on things, their desire to use religion as a tool to manipulate and dupe the "sheeple" while eschewing it themselves, and their top-down approach to social organization is becoming better understood as their agenda becomes more obvious to anyone who is paying attention. To say that their "belief system" is completely antithetical to Thomas Jefferson's is an understatement to say the least. The neocon globalist agenda, with the US serving as the springboard for their attempts at empire building, runs utterly contrary to Jefferson's beliefs on how a nation should conduct its foreign policy. What to do with Jefferson - how to counter his still-powerful influence on Americans and American thought, and indeed, world thought on the individual and his place in the scheme of things? Why of course, you would co-opt him - you would finagle your way onto the board of trustees of his home, you would commission writers to deconstruct him as well as all the Founders, showing what really flawed individuals and hypocrites they were - how could these rich hypocrites have written anything with eternal value, since they were so imperfect?
A pox on their houses, their writings, and their legacy! We can't let a bunch of dead old rich white men stand between us and our Empire! Remember what Bush said - that the Constitution is just a g.d. piece of paper? Since the neocons - who like to refer to themselves as 'Vulcans' so I hear - believe that they are more enlightened, more intelligent, and more capable of running this country - and the world - than anyone else, any and all who stand between them and their stated goals, will be dealt with.
The way they have done this with Jefferson, as mentioned above, is by co-opting his home and his legacy. I'll address the efforts to destroy his legacy first - because what I have to say is going to be controversial.
Starting in the early 1990's, there was a shift from the traditional focus on the public personas and accomplishments of the Founders, to a more personal focus on these people as individuals, with a warts and all emphasis on their shortcomings - in the case of Jefferson and other Southern Founders, the fact that they were slave owners. While this is something we all wish had not been the case, and it does indeed inevitably detract from our overall estimation of them as men and examples to be admired and emulated, it does not justify dismissing them and everything they did and wrote as rank hypocrisy, lies or worse - to do that is to throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater - which is exactly what the neocons hoped would happen - and to a great extent, it has. In an amazingly short period of time, the perception of Thomas Jefferson has undergone a complete change, so that when his name comes up, the discussion is more likely to be focused on his sex life than on his thinking, accomplishments, or writings. What a cunning way to disable and negate the influence of one of our greatest exponents of personal freedom - and so simple - by bringing Jefferson down to the level of pop culture gossip fodder.
As to his home - Monticello is owned and operated by a self-perpetuating board of trustees, composed primarily of well-heeled members of the financial elites and corporate types, a few wealthy old guard locals, and a celebrity of the infotainment world, UVA alum Katie Couric. The resident neocon on this board? A stockbroker, philanthropist, and founding member of the [Manhattan Institute], Richard Gilder of New York City, a co-founder of the [Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History].
The Gilder-Lehrman Institute, or GLIAH, is a well-known powerhouse in the field of American History and its interpretation. It strives to be the "gatekeeper" of American history - and funds authorship of books that articulate the way they wish American history to be taught and perceived. Gilder and his partner, Lewis Lehrman, provide what appears to be almost limitless funding for this organization and a number of other foundations that they have individually founded and run - the ngos we are now becoming familiar with, as they influence policy and public perception from their sneaky vantage points at the elbows of the powerful. Some of these relate to American history; some are political. Gilder is a founder of the [Club For Growth] - I suspect everyone here at Dailykos knows that name. He is a prime mover in the school voucher, or as it is now known more euphemistically, "school choice" movement and was one of the earliest exponents of "supply-side" economics. Lehrman is even scarier - founding member of the [American Enterprise Institute], the [Heritage Foundation], the [Project For A New American Century], advisor to the White House on the dreadful and sordid war in Nicaragua. All of this is easily verifiable - I found all of this information simply by googling them with a variety of search phrases. [Namebase.org] has lots of info on Lehrman in particular. Their favorite Founder? Why, Alexander Hamilton, of course.
Recently the GLIAH cemented their role in running Thomas Jefferson's home - and his public persona - by funding and underwriting the salary of the head curator at Monticello. In scanning the list of contributors to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation ( formerly the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, but their primary purpose is no longer to memorialize Jefferson and his accomplishments, hence the name change) we find such illustrious names as the head of the Carlyle Group, along with others of that ilk.
Monticello as a tourist attraction has been losing money for the last few years. Members of our family organization have noticed that things are not being kept up as well as they used to be in the house. I guess this is all part of the grand neocon plan for the demise of our country as an independent entity. I suspect they particularly loathe Jefferson, although they clearly loathe all the Founding Fathers, as obstacles to their successful takeover of our country and the rest of the world.