Not Jefferson’s Party Anymore

Kim du Toit
May 5, 2008
6:00 AM EDT
· General

Some time ago, I was reading a slew of comments from Democrats about how they were “the party of Jefferson”—which, like so many statements by Democrats, is technically accurate but factually far from the truth.

As Dean Barnett puts it:

Shortly after the nation’s founding, the country was divided between Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson and Federalists led by John Adams. The Adams faction adamantly believed that men needed firm governance or else they would devolve into wickedness. The Jeffersonians had more faith in their countrymen. In the 21st century, this fundamental difference still makes itself manifest.

...except, of course, that today’s Democrat Party is closer in spirit to Adams’s Republicans—Nanny Government, after all, is there to protect us from ourselves.

So the Democrats are no longer the “party of Jefferson” (our third President would be appalled to see what has become of “his” party), and this canard should be refuted at every possible step.

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