Quotes From Some Intelligent People

In the posts on this blog, I have often praised the thinking of America’s Founding Fathers.  They were wise, mainly for two reasons:  they understood that there is such a thing as “moral law,” directed and overseen by a Creator (most of them were strong believers in the Christian religion, though not pure New Testament Christians), and—almost as important—they knew history.   And that IS crucial.  Today’s politicians know neither.  The following are some quotes from Thomas Jefferson (one from Abraham Lincoln).  This is almost amazing, the foresight and wisdom seen in these statements.  I say, “almost amazing,” because they are not amazing to anyone who understands the Bible (the source of moral law) and history. 
 

The choice, Jefferson said in 1816,  is “between economy and liberty, or [government] profusion and servitude.  If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor 16 hours in the 24, give the earnings of 15 of those to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the 16th being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they do now, on oatmeal and potatoes.”  Or food stamps.  He is being a little facetious, obviously, in this statement, but the meaning is clear. 

Jefferson complained of federal politicians who seem “at a loss for objects whereon to throw away the supposed fathomless funds of the treasury.”

“A single consolidated government would become the most corrupt government on earth.”  The more power in the hands of government, the more corrupt it becomes.

“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money (taxes) for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.”  Read that again.   Now, read it again.  Following this irrefutable principle would eliminate 90% of federal spending.

“If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.”  Welfare state, anyone?

Even in his own day, Jefferson bemoaned “the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States.”  One federal judge today—one judge—can strike down a state law.   

Regarding interpreting the Constitution:  “On every question of construction [we should] carry ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”  If the courts don’t do that, of course, then the Constitution becomes meaningless.  It can, in effect, mean anything, thus, it means nothing.

On becoming President in 1801, Jefferson slashed federal spending and abolished all domestic taxes.  He also closed several American embassies around the world as a waste of money.  What a novel idea.  He also cut military spending, although interestingly, he did have a small Middle Eastern war against some pirates who were raiding American ships.  He sent Marines to Tripoli, hence the Marine hymn, “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli….”

 

And I love this one from Jefferson:  "A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you've got."  I'm just...almost overwhelmed...by their wisdom and foresight.  But, then again, I'm not.

One more quote, this one from Abraham Lincoln:  “If the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all of the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands.”  That’s what Americans used to believe.  Well, today, some still do.  Unfortunately, the entire Democratic Party does NOT believe that, and such is the source of their political power.  And they know it.  And they aren’t about to give it up. 

To find justification for such rampant theft of honest people's money, the Democrats flee to the Marxist dogma of “zero sum” economics, i.e., that there is only so much wealth in a society, and thus, the more the rich have, the less the poor have.  “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”  That is pure, unadulterated Marxism, and shows absolutely no understanding of wealth creation.  Jefferson, and probably Lincoln, would respond, “Well, if the rich are getting richer because they are investing, providing jobs, goods, and services that people want, and the poor are getting poorer because they are sitting around on their lazy backsides doing nothing, then the rich OUGHT to be getting richer and the poor OUGHT to be getting poorer.”  This, however, does not mitigate the propriety of charity.  There will always be poor people, of course, and those who are truly needy should be helped.  No one denies this.  No one denies this!  The question is not, and never has been, should the “needy poor” be assisted; the question is only, and always, HOW should they be helped?  Is that a legitimate function of government?  To the men who founded America, it was not, because they believed government assistance to the poor only encouraged people to look for handouts rather than become productive citizens of society.  The more government freely hands out money, the more people who will stand in line for it; that’s part of human nature that America’s Founders grasped well.  To them, charity/poverty was a moral, as much as an economic, issue.  Government welfare encourages sloth and vice, and as we can see from American society today, they obviously knew exactly what they were talking about.  

But then, they knew history and they understood the eternal, moral laws flowing from the nature of God.  America will never recover until we again get leaders of the same quality.

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And if I'm going to have a quote from some intelligent people, to be fair, I must also have a quote from an idiot.  This is Jay Carney, the White House press secretary:  "this is not a case of protests directed at the United States writ large or at U.S. policy, this is in response to a video that is offensive to Muslims."  Yes, a spontaneous protest that had obviously been planned for quite some time....

Just another reason Barack Obama must be removed from office for the good of the country.  He hasn't a clue what's going on in the world. 

Or maybe he agrees with the protesters.  That wouldn't surprise me in the least.