Where Our Founding Fathers Extremist?
Certainly King George III would have considered our founding fathers extremist. But apparently, they may be considered extremist even today, at least by the left.
In my earlier post on Janice Rogers Brown, I quoted JRB saying:
"Where government moves in, community
retreats, civil society disintegrates. . . . When government advances . . .
freedom is imperiled, civilization itself [is] jeopardized."
I noted that both the NY Times and the People for the American Way use this quote to say that JRB is "extremist". I said, in response, "I bet I could find about 20 similar quotes in the Federalist Papers or from other contributors to the US Constitution." Of course, I was too lazy to go looking for quotes, but Gary Galles of the Mises Blog was not. He has hunted down many examples, but I will quote his work on the JRB quote above:
Janice Rogers Brown: "Where government advances"”and it advances
relentlessly"”freedom is imperiled...When did government cease to be a necessary
evil and become a goody bag to solve our private problems?"
Thomas
Paine: "Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in
its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable
one."
George Mason: "Every society, all government, and
every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the
general good and safety of the community. Every power, every authority vested in
particular men is, or ought to be, ultimately directed at this sole end; and
whenever any power or authority whatever extends further...than is in its nature
necessary for these purposes, it may be called government, but it is in fact
oppression."
Thomas Jefferson: "˜What more is necessary to
make us a happy and a prosperous people?...a wise and frugal Government, which
shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to
regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from
the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good
government..."
Go read them all. And remember, he is taking all the JRB quotes right off the People for the American Way site, who have posted the quotes to scare us about what an extremist she is.
