Even the New Republic is not safe

from Jeffersonian “hate.” Check out this quote from a story on CPAC by T.A.Frank, registration required to view the whole story, thanks to Jim Boulet for the link:

During this [CPAC] conference, one of the interludes between panels featured Patrick Henry–that is, a gentleman dressed up as Patrick Henry who exhorted his audience to live virtuously and recited a lengthy passage from the “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech. It’s a stirring bit of oratory. And it made me ask myself: How much do liberals today draw convincingly on 1776 or 1787? They often present themselves as the heirs to FDR or JFK, but rarely, it seems, to Madison or Washington–it’s as if liberal history begins in 1933. Sure, I like Medicare and Head Start, but they don’t resonate with me as strongly as the Federalist Papers or the Bill of Rights. Conservatives, perhaps by nature, understand this, and they’ve effectively grabbed our revolutionary history for themselves.

I wonder if Frank, and the other Democrats calling on the party to rediscover their Jeffersonian roots, are aware that several years ago leading Democrat Representative Lynn Woolsey dismissed Jefferson as a “slave holder” whose views should not be taken seriously.

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6:53 pm on February 24, 2005