Who Is Jefferson?

Quite possibly one of the most quoted of the Founding Fathers, but also the most widely misrepresented.

( h/t: Rob Bokken

This online resource shows just how misrepresented Jefferson is. And with the Tea Bagger movement doing all they can to distort what the Obama administration is doing as well as what The Founders intentions were for this country, it's good to have a resource to fact-check conservatives.

Here's a good example:

A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have...

This quote is a complete fabrication.

We have never found such a statement in Jefferson's writings. As far as we know, this statement actually originates with Gerald R. Ford, who said, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have," in an address to a joint session of Congress on August 12, 1974.[1]

This quotation is sometimes followed by, "The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases," which is most likely a misquotation of Jefferson's comment, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild, and government to gain ground."

This is not surprising in the least, as conservatives have also misrepresented The Founders religious beliefs. Moreover, who is anyone to say that they know the true motives of The Founders. After all, never in their time could they have imagined things like the internet, telephones, airplanes, or medical science that could cure or prevent many of the diseases that ran rampant in their time.

Much in the way that Tea Baggers and conservatives at large lack a fuller understanding of the Constitution, it's the blatant and unblushing maligning of The Founders that don't help their cause in the least. However, by not fact-checking them, we are just as guilty of allowing this campaign of ignorance and disinformation to continue.