Opinion

The Guy Who Founded America Is No Longer Welcome At Democratic Dinner Tables

Scott Greer Contributor
Font Size:

It’s official: the Connecticut Democratic Party can’t stand the man who penned the Declaration of Independence.

The state party declared on Thursday that Thomas Jefferson’s name will no longer have a spot at its annual dinner fundraiser.

A spokesman for the Connecticut Democrats said it was done because the man who founded the United States as much as anybody offends people. Jefferson’s continued association with the confab goes against the party’s “dedication to diversity and forward-looking vision.” (RELATED: Connecticut Dems Dump Jefferson, Urge Rest Of U.S. To Follow)

Connecticut’s Dems aren’t the only the state blue team ditching Jefferson. Many state-level Democrat outfits throughout the country are renaming the traditionally-titled Jefferson-Jackson Dinners. Both J-men are out of favor among the contemporary left — Jackson, especially.

That’s not surprising considering the seventh president’s reputation and actions in life. (RELATED: You Can Take Andrew Jackson From Our Cold, Dead Hands)

Yet it’s odd that the left is treating Jefferson so badly when when they use his words to support their various causes.

For example, concerning gay marriage, many Democrats said the words “all men are created equal” sanctified the unions. The said the Supreme Court foisting it upon the country in June was merely a fulfillment of our founding principles. President Obama concurred in his statement on the decision. So did Bradley/Chelsea Manning and several others who celebrated the high court’s verdict as a win for the ideals supposedly implied by Jefferson’s text.

While Jefferson’s interpretation of “all men are created equal” was radically different than what it means to those who indulge in it in the present day, these immortal words are used by the left (and sometimes by the right) to justify every new cause they take on. But if the man who wrote them is so unworthy as to be removed from your party’s fancy shindig, isn’t there some major cognitive dissonance here?

By removing any mention of his name, Democrats are essentially saying Jefferson was a terrible person who has no place in 21st century America — even though we wouldn’t have an America today if it wasn’t for the Virginia Renaissance man.

Doesn’t that put Democrats in an awkward position the next time one of them says we are founded upon ideas promulgated by a man we just can’t tolerate in our more enlightened age?

We’ll just have to wonder how the self-appointed guardians of truth will explain the authorship of the Declaration of Independence when we’re not allowed to acknowledge the man behind it.

Jefferson was like pretty much every human who has ever lived — a complex individual with both virtues and his vices. It is true: he was a slaveowner and he did have a sordid affair with one of his slaves. But that doesn’t change the fact that he helped found this country and established many of the values we still cherish today. (RELATED: Flap Over Things Named After Thomas Jefferson Fails To Reach ‘The Jeffersons’)

Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. He fought for religious freedom. He is partially responsible for ensuring a Bill of Rights came with our constitution. He embodied the independent, free-conscious spirit that is so ingrained into our country’s fabric and is considered one of the greatest presidents in our nation’s history.

The campaign to expunge Jefferson’s name (along with Jackson’s) is just another weasely attempt to bowdlerize American history to conform to modern biases. If a founder, president or hero from the nation’s past had any unseemly traits, then it is now considered perfectly appropriate to remove him (and it is universally a “him”) from public veneration.

This standard is even applied to fictional characters in 21st-century America. (RELATED: Should We Ban ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’?)

It’s not a stretch to call this campaign a war on U.S. history. When we have new high school curricula that emphasizes a primarily negative view of our national past and look to ban any reminders of uncomfortable events and symbols from that past, we have a society that is very much at war with its own history.

That’s a shame, as the only way we can maintain a sense of national identity and unity is if we understand where we come from and what men and events made this country possible. Without that essential understanding, we will lose that very identity and be more like one big, continental Costco than an actual nation-state.

To excise and encourage others to join in your abolishment of Jefferson’s memory simply to avoid hurting feelings is both asinine and cowardly.

There’s no denying the fact he wasn’t a saint, but he wasn’t a man we would be ashamed to have a dinner named after.

But it might be true that Jefferson would be ashamed of the party having dinners in his honor.

Follow Scott on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel