Our Founding Fathers

I keep hearing the argument - Our founding fathers would have done this, or that, or our founding fathers said this, or that.

Before I get started with what I think is wrong with those type of statements, let's take a look at some of the things our founding fathers said.  Most of our 20th and 21st Century Political Commentators do a very good job of digging back into history and finding exactly what they want to find in order to further their own agenda, an agenda that fuels their cause and puts more money in their pockets. (Actually they pay researchers to do it for them.)

So I thought I would offer up some things that one might discover if they were doing that type of research.  When our constitution was being written, for some reason, the writers didn't see any reason to make allowances to give women the opportunity to vote.  Apparently, they also did not see anything wrong with slavery.

One of, if not the, most quoted of our founding fathers, An American Guesser, thought that the turkey should be our national bird.  It doesn't seem he had any particular fondness for the turkey, but more a disdain for the eagle, "a bird of bad moral character" as he put it.

The Point?  The point is that the rules, regulations and ideas of yesterday don't suit us as a modern society.  The economics of yesterday should not be applied to the America of tomorrow just because it worked yesterday, it needs to be a good, thoughtful fit for America in present day.

There was a time in history when people opposed the government establishing public schools, building public roads, abolishing slavery (it was viewed as a violation of private property) and desegregation because all of those things were not in the Founding Fathers original design.  The United States of today is not in the Founding Fathers original design.  Then why should we be held to the politics of the Founding Fathers?  Can you imagine what the price of gas would be if there were no interstates for the trucks to drive on?

With all due respect to our Founding Fathers, they were not prophets.  They were not all knowing and all seeing.  That had good intentions, and the way they navigated the waters of a New America, did quite well for our country in its early years, but they were mere mortal men.  To expect any more of them beyond those years is unfair to them and quite frankly, an unreasonable position.

Ask yourself this.  Is the reason Our Founding Fathers didn't allow for regulation of the automobile industry because they disagreed, or because they didn't know what a car was?