Thankful for Thomas Jefferson's Trust

Among other lessons, Thomas Jefferson taught that future leaders should trust the good judgment and common sense of the American people. He thought those qualities were the rudder that would keep the ship of state on its proper course. Of course he presumed our good judgment and common sense were underwritten by a press protected by the First Amendment that would do its job of informing the people about their public business and by elected officials committed to honesty and candor.

In the period between the spring of 2002 and sometime within the past year or so, some of us lost confidence in the good judgment and common sense of the American people when a majority re-elected a president who had either made a huge mistake in trusting massively faulty intelligence or had purposely and consciously misled us. For the first time in my life I began to question Jefferson's assurances and to fear that we were in the process of becoming a fundamentally different country.

But, true to his admonition, a very large majority of Americans have now passed judgment, good judgment, on this president and are demonstrating common sense in concluding we have been led badly off course at home and abroad.

This Thanksgiving Day, among many, many blessings, I am most grateful for the restoration of American good judgment and common sense. This gratitude is qualified only by the thought that it has taken more than 30,000 American casualties to restore our true character and by the sober realization that the Democratic party now must demonstrate courage and conviction in designing a better course for America.

Comments

[liaisonsus]

Lets hope that the democratic party recovers its lost family jewels!!!

[unfoxworthy]

You know Gary, many of us had our jaws drop, and shook our heads when W was re-elected (including many non-Americans, I would guess).

...borrowing partly from a former post: WE AS AMERICANS must GET BACK TO and EFFECTIVELY EMPLOY that great design which was handed down to us by our incredibly gifted forefathers.

[ECJLA]

With the greatest respect, Gary, placement of hope for political salvation in the Democrats is unmerited.

The Democrats are very poorly positioned for 2008 because their leaders are irresolute, highly ineffectual advocates of the historical traditions and values of the Democratic Party. As a good doctor of philosophy, you well diagnosed this malady/malaise in Courage of Our Convictions: A Manifesto for Democrats.

None of the current Democrat candidates for president are indignant, tough and skilled enough to refute the right's martial political artists in the hand-to-hand combat that is modern politics. Nor willing nor able to mobilize the populace into a fearsome movement for social change. Whoever is nominated will be drubbed in the 2008 general election by the Republican nominee as a result.

Democrats have made the cardinal sin in politics of ostracizing and marginalizing their own "best and brightist" as too leftist and their base as too populist, while Republicans have elevated and promoted their own rightist zealots and respected their base as "true believers". The asymetry in talent and ardor is now a gaping chasm, and has resulted in the steam-rollering of every Democratic nominee since 1980 by the right's tribune with the sole exception of Bill Clinton who never won a majority of popular votes and owes his presidential terms to the siphoning candidacy of Ross Perot.

Public disillusionment with a feckless criminal war aside, the Reagan Revolution is rolling on unscathed. Its premises have never once been effectively countered, root and branch. For this reason, 2008 is shaping up as yet another status quo election.

For the cocooned upper middle class and for wealthy elites and their families, it's Happy Thanksgiving. For those in the soup lines, the sky-rocketing denizens of America's prisons and jails, and the "sick and tired" folks living paycheck to paycheck, how happy can Thanksgiving really be for them?

One wonders whether to thank or criticize the nation's founders for their hostility to the French Revolution and Haitian overthrow of slavery.

Eric C. Jacobson
Public Interest Lawyer
Culver City, California

[bolderdash]

Gary Hart, always the hopeful idealist, gives Americans some hopeful signs on Thanksgiving Day for positive change in the wind.

unfortunately, my inner cynic mind says that the American electorate is extremely naieve' and uniformed in being so easily shaped by the mainstream media for its news.

unfortunately, America's Democracy is today a total and dismal failure. When only 50% of the adult population is registered to vote, and about 25% actually turn up at the polls in the last four presidential national elections to cast their vote, i would say America is not getting true representation in Congress for their needs.

The majority of politicians today, both Demo's and Repub's, listen to the 'jingle' of money offered to them by their friendly neighborhood Lobbyist. Why not? the average American citizen either doesn't give a damn, or believes their vote won't make a difference anyways.

Until a more healthier attitude in our public is restored "for the people, and by the people..." in our society, Washington D.C. will continue to be run for the Corporate elite and "for and by the lobbyists, so help me God..."!

[kzlager]

start a war based on lies, nationalize the cost, privatize the profits and forget the deaths.

sick sick sick

[DaveHuntsman]

On Howard K. Smith's last night as an ABC News anchor, he said something that I think was very important: that he had learned over the decades to, 1. Never underestimate the intelligence of the American people; but, 2. Never OVERestimate the information available to them.
What Howard missed by leaving the stage before Murdoch's and Ailes', well, attack on true journalism in America is that even with 'all' the info truly available to them, a determined organization could poison the well of the body politic enough to turn that knowledge on its head.
No one seems willing to tackle this aspect head-on. It's essentially the 500 lb media elephant in the room no one is addressing directly.

[dyannne]

I'm thankful that Americans have waken from their slumber and realize they've been had by Bush/Cheney Inc., but I truly wish they'd waked up a hell of a lot sooner.

[cadawa]

Support for the war was based on lies peddled by the corporate media. You can't blame the common sense and reason of the American people for that.
Even so 10,000,000 people worldwide demonstrated against the war before it even started. This is unprecedented.
Congress refused to hear dissenting voices, even when the Democrats controlled the Senate.
As for electing Bush, it has been proven that Bush was not elected in 2000 and there are serious inconsistancies in the 20004 results. Yet congress to certifies one rigged election after another and is no where close to fixing a system that cannot meet international standards for fairness and transparency.
We cannot even guarantee that our representatives in Congress are the ones we elected. They don't act like it and they certainly aren't representing our interests.
The American people have been overwhelmingly against this this war for years yet Congress continues to fund it and make criminals out of our soldiers.
Even without a public discourse on impeachment, a majority of Americans favor it. Congress is refusing to carry out its constitutional duty and impeach Bush and Cheney for betrayal, fraud, unlawful acts and gross abuse of power.
We are now in the same position that the colonists were regarding England; taxation without representation. We are victims not citizens, through no fault of our own. We have been misled, lied to and abused by those we empowered.
The system is so badly broken that if we wish to reclaim our country, we are faced with resorting to extreme measures.

[ronmyers]

You are sadly mistaken if you think the majority of Americans exercise good judgment and common sense in political matters. I am disappointed in your lack of perception in this matter. But even if there were such a majority as you think, it could leave a very dangerous minority of the dimwitted and malicious. I see very little in the current political arrangement to be thankful for. And in fact, Jefferson himself often lacked good judgment, as for example in certain matters regarding Aaron Burr.

[Halsey]

With all his testosterone faults..T. Jefferson is forgiven all by saying


All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.


Thus endeth the lesson.

[FogBelter]

Senator Hart, the American People's Trust for their leaders has trumped their common sense for quite some time now ... but it seems like they are beginning to come around.

The MSM is really starting to take it on the chin now, because Americans are starting to realize that there is a difference between the "Free Press" protected in the Constitution and the "Private Press" which has commandeered the Market Place of Ideas since the end of the Fairness Doctrine and the passing of the Telecommunications Act (Another Clinton Failing)

The scrutiny of the Polling Process that is occurring is another example that Americans are starting to wise up. Corporations may think Social Engineering through Polls is a cute idea, but it is poison to our democracy and, where it is occurring, must be exposed and dealt with.

Americans calling out partisan companies creating hackable Electronic Voting Machines is another example of the reawakening of American Common Sense ...

"You mean to tell me, your ATM Machine can be trusted with my money, but your Voting Machine can't be trusted with my Vote? How does THAT work?"

Jefferson was a sharp dude, Americans can trip and stumble, but once they re-engage their common sense ... Watch Out!!

I hate to quote Ronald Reagan, but in one area I must commend his (or his staff and speech writer's) rationale .

In this life one must always "Trust but Verify"

[falco]

Like the American people had any choice in who to vote for or who ultimately becomes president. A body of people we can't see or know decide for us and then merely present the candidates they have chosen. Because of the deception and nastiness that surrounds elections, we don't know who really wins. Voter fraud is real and made even easier by electronic voting. Don't take us for such fools Gary!!! We The People realize that at the top, there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. It's a myth perpetuated by people who believe we are ignorant and who know the division the system creates allows for lots of wasted time and effort on our part all the while those that run the world are left to their own devices. We aren't falling for the impression given by the media that the Republicans are stupid and corrupt or that the Democrats are as well for not doing anything about it. We've realized that the condition of our country is an exercise in deliberate mismanagement - and that in the end, the results of this mismanagement fulfill the goals of the CFR. We are hip to the situation behind the scenes Gary. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, it may be our last happy one unless the American people can figure out how to change the system - and quick.

[citizenpaine]

This the same Gary Hart, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, who stated just days after 9/11 that the attacks should be used as an opportunity to -- and I quote -- "build a new world order"?

Referring to the deaths of 3000 Americans in a terrorist attack as "an opportunity" apparently isn't just the domain of neocons.

Then again, most of the neocon establishment, and most of the signatories of the PNAC, are members of the CFR as well.

Teddy Kennedy, Dianne Feinstein, and Chuck Schumer, all members of the same exclusive little elitist club as Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and George Bush.

Imagine that.

[Brujos1]

Senator Hart,
Please do not confuse the Democratic Party with "We The People". Jefferson created the Party in his own image, followed by Jackson, Wilson, and Roosevelt. Lincoln did the same with Republicans followed by Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan. They are all gone.

Independents now outnumber both parties. Money, power and winning drives nominations by the two establishment parties. Barack Obama could break this cycle, but the odds are against him. Michael Bloomberg is now looming forward as a formidable alternative, more than Ross Perot, who was responsible for Bill Clinton's victory with only 42% of the vote.

As one of our political leaders who is still in the game, where do you stand and when will the world know?

[Bannister]

Why depend on the media for your opinions? Can't you read the body language of Bush, Rice et al? The smirk, the inappropriate heh-heh, Rice's lifeless eyes. Turn off the sound and just watch; you can tell that whatever they are saying is not true. The media publishes ads for consumers. It does not publish the truth even when they know it. Recently, a man who worked on my sprinkler system, was behind on his child support, lived with his mother, and lived day to day was shocked when I said I was not a Republican. I was shocked that he was.