Please click on http://www.tjheritage.org and http://www.jeffersondnastudy.com for full details and recent books on this controversy.

Herb Barger
Founder, Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society

Good point about Mr. Smith, too. Morone was writing about Americans’ desire to see their political leaders as personally virtuous, but of course, even George Washington is no Washington these days, if you know what I mean. Morone might rather have pointed to the press corps’ deference to Presidential image-making in the mid-20th C, and its conscious choice not to report on FDR’s wheelchair, JFK’s womanizing, various presidential health problems, etc.

I also agree absolutely with Historiann: it’s fantastic to see a professional humanist set up that portable podium in the public square and take a stand. Generations ago, the guys (and they were all guys) who taught when I teach now broadcast about culture and politics over national radio, wrote best-sellers about history and politics and played a vital role in the liberal reformism whose limits are all too clear now–and whose accomplishments, as Morone suggests, look better in retrospect than they did to young hotheads in the sixties.

It’s time, and past time, for those with the expert knowledge to use it, critically and forcefully, to inject some seriousness into our infuriating, rancid public debate.

1. Is it worth looking at the fact that when Morone wants to find a 20th century analog for George Washington as symbol of the righteous citizen assuming responsibility for public affairs, he turns, not to actual public life, but to Hollywood? Even if you’re a Capra admirer (which I’m emphatically not) isn’t this a little unnerving?

2.Did the liberal left–while decrying consumerism–nevertheless adopt, along the way, an essentially consumerist version of liberalism that isn’t compatible with a morality-based politics? Where’s the moral passion if reproductive rights are framed as “choice” rather than as rights, or if explicit anti-discrimination policies are packaged as “diversity,” or the labor movement lobbies for the Employee Free Choice Act? Indvidualism isn’t a new theme in our society, but didn’t the left once reject it for its selfishness? And if so, when and why did the left start trying to merge selfishness with the idea of freedom? Isn’t that the other guys’ song? Ours was supposed to be Solidarity Forever.

(Because as we’ve already established, many editorialists, especially of the conservative variety, are apparently incapable of recognizing or understanding the fact that there was no such thing as a consensus on anything among the so-called “Founding Fathers.”)

And not only that, but weren’t these bags of fuck paying attention in ninth grade when they were taught about the ratification debates? Jeezus motherfuck!

As a matter of naked self-interest, though, I’m voting for European-style socialism. Those big fat “retire at 50″ checks probably won’t stop coming for another half century or so, which is about how long I’ll need one.