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I recently attended a discussion group at the Port Jefferson Free Library called Historical Happenings. The group moderator is Earlene O'Hare and the book that was up for discussion was entitled "Revolutionary Characters" by Gordon S.Wood. There were about seven(7) people in attendance, which is what i would expect for a historical discussion group. The book discussed the characters of several revolutionary personages including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine and Arron Burr.

The basis for the discussion was a set of questions that was distributed to each participant when they picked up the book. Your answers would help facilitate the discussion. There were approx. twelve (12) questions of which I was prepared to answer about ten. There was one question that stood out from the rest that I thought was interesting. The question was "Where, if possible, could you place the revolutionary personages in today's political spectrum?". This was a difficult question to answer but I endeavored to give it a shot. Some were more difficult than others and could evolve into a prolonged debate. So I will confine myself to the two that I felt were the most interesting.

Thomas Jefferson is considered by many to be the father of the Democratic party. He is still often mentioned in speeches of democratic candidates running for office. However, given what we know of what Jefferson believed in, he would have no place being in today's Democratic Party. Jefferson believed in states rights, limited government, limiting the power of the federal government, balanced budgets, no taxes, anti bank, against professional, standing military forces.He would be an anathema to the Democratic party. Not all of Jefferson's positions would cast him outside the pale of the Democratic Party but these tenets certainly would. A recent acquaintance of mine described himself as a Jeffersonian Democrat. I had to think about that for a while before I realized that my acquaintance was trying to be witty. To be a Jeffersonian Democrat is the same as being a Libertarian or even a member of the Tea Party. It is my view that this is where Jefferson today would find himself politically aligned.

Enter Alexander Hamilton, often thought of as the father of "Big Business". Hamilton was instrumental in establishing the first bank of the United States. Hamilton believed in a strong central government, he believed in big government, he believed in deficit spending, in taxation, was an internationalist in foreign policy, promoted the raising of a professional army that was supported by government expenditure. Many of Hamilton's beliefs would find him in agreement with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party today.

Many of my fellow attendees did not have an answer to this question for reasons ranging from an inability to translate the persons political position into today's political spectrum to their belief that the question to controversial or to somewhere in-between. The point is that our lack of understanding of the history of our country has led us to believe in the myths that have been created by Madison Avenue and the propaganda distributed by the various political factions rather than a clear understanding of the evolution of the ideas that the founders represented.

Arthur Schlesinger Jr. use to say that history is the conscience of a nation. We cannot continue to let Madison Avenue be the source of our nation's history and understanding. Thomas Jefferson would have no place in today's Democratic Party just as Alexander Hamilton would be ostracized within the ranks of the Republican Party. Ben Franklin is often portrayed as being very industrious while in fact, he was a man of leisure, retired at the age of 42, and enjoyed the ladies immeasurably. George Washington probably told a lie or perhaps stretched the truth to a point that it would be hard to differentiate it from a lie ( What politician doesn't do that?). Reading and understanding history is critical to an informed, functioning democracy. It opens up our eyes and ears to the issues of the day, An informed and knowledgeable citizenry opens up the debate and widens the choices that society as a whole can debate, resulting in better legislation that results in a better life for all Americans. Don't let myth and TV advertising be your sole source of historical knowledge, get wise and pay a visit to your local library from time to time and take out a book or read a periodical about an issue or topic that you find interesting or are curious about. You will not regret it.

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