What Would Jefferson Say?

A Gallup poll recently released revealed that 71% of Americans would not think that the founding fathers would be happy with the way the country has turned out. This was reported here by NBC News.

 

The article goes on with a flawed analysis that holds that these 71% must be Americans who are unhappy to have Barack Obama as President of the United States, comparing that to a 54% disapproval rate of the same question put to them in 2001.

 

The analysis is flawed.

 

It is flawed because I fully (or nearly so) support President Obama's stewardship of our country over the past 5 years, and I, too, believe that the founding fathers would be horrified at what they saw at how the country has turned out.

 

I think they might see us as having gone completely crazy with the Citizens United decision that not only gives corporations the same rights as citizens, but give them the equivalent of super-citizenship.

 

I think they might see us as having taken a conditional right to bear arms in the event of the need of a militia to the extreme of the present state of things where more Americans are killed by gun violence than any other nationality in the world.

 

I think they would be horrified at seeing a congress so polarized, so dysfunctional that they cannot balance a budget or pass a farm bill, yet gives government carte blanche to go and fight two completely unfunded foreign wars, one of which was totally unprovoked.

 

They would be aghast at having an offshore prison holding foreign nationals against their wills without any act of congress or due process of law.

 

So this poll, or rather its analysis, is flawed. It doesn't take into account the diverse opinions on how this country is going. Perhaps it is this: In 2001 the poll had 54% thinking the founding fathers would disapprove of the state of things right now, but this group has been augmented by an additional 17% who hate Obama and what he represents.

 

Yeah, that's the ticket.