Honoring the intention of the founders, or being hogtied by dead rebels.

I am heartily sick of excusing self-serving political acts as honoring the intent of the founding fathers. I can see two reasons for honoring the intent of the founders.



1. Their ideas are still relevant and worth applying today.
2. By essentially worshiping the founders, dissent can be squelched by invoking the founders.

Reason 1 isn't all bad, although it needs to approached with caution. The social and political landscape is radically different from the one at the time of the country's founding. Taking into account the differences in society will necessarily lead us to make different decisions. Keep in mind that the founders were revolutionaries who were part of the ruling, and some cases slave owning, class.

If we want to consider the intent of the founders, we need to figure out what their intent was. Whose intent do we honor, the slaver owner, the abolitionist, or the founder who was neutral on the issue of slavery? If we must honor the intent of the founders then my position is that we honor the intent of the abolitionist, while other folks may think we should honor the intent of the slave owners or the neutral folks. I would rather not talk about honoring the founders' intent, but rather viewing their ideas a source of inspiration for forming a position that is appropriate for our society.

Reason 2 is lunacy. Some of the founders were brilliant, some of them were noble, some were venal, and in at least the case of Thomas Jefferson all three. The founders were not necessarily nice people, they were not necessarily good people, and they were not always right.

I'm willing to accept insights from just about any source, but ultimately I keep my own council. Slavish adherence to what people claim are the founders ideas is stupid for at least 2 reasons. The first is that their ideas were formed for a agrarian society where they were the top of the heap. The second is that much like religious texts, the words of the founders are often read selectively is a manner that supports the current power elite.


In the end, I want people to be involved in their societies and their governments to act in the best interest of the societies. I do not want the governments justifying venal actions by claiming that they are fooling the original intent of the founders.