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Stop idolizing the Founders

Stop idolizing the Founders

In my psychology class, we recently learned about a fascinating experiment conducted by the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov in the early 20th century.

In the experiment, Pavlov would ring a bell before serving his dog dinner. At the sight of a juicy steak, the dog’s mouth would water. After hearing the bell and subsequently seeing the food over the course of several days, the dog began salivating merely at the sound of the bell.

Pavlov’s dog demonstrated what is now known as “classical conditioning”, the process of learning by association. Through repetition, Pavlov’s dog unconsciously learned a reaction – salivating – to a given stimulus – a bell ringing.

Pavlovian responses seem to have caught on in American politics. Thanks to 24-hour pundits and the 30-second sound bite, certain keywords elicit conditioned responses.

National debt? Bad! Free market principles? Salivate! Government regulation? Bad! Founding Fathers? Drool!

While knee-jerk reactions to each one of these ideas have been harmful to America, one is particularly irrational: the fetishization of the Founders.

This Founder worship is particularly rampant among Tea Partiers. It is evident not just in the name of the movement, but in leading Tea Partiers’ writings.

In Glenn Beck’s latest novel, for instance, the protagonist memorizes the works of the Founding Fathers and, by the end of the novel (spoiler alert!), is about to begin a revolt against the government to “restore” our founding principles.

In an op-ed last week, conservative thinker Peter Berkowitz, explaining “why liberals don’t get the Tea Party Movement,” wrote that American university system has failed to teach college students (who are, of course, all socialists) the founding principles of American constitutional government.

I think it’s time to clear up this misconception. The Founders were not always right. When they were right, the lessons quite often do not apply today.

First of all, the vast majority of the Founders were racist, misogynistic, slave-owners. If we really want to return to our founding principles, we would have to return to the days when not even the entire adult male population could vote.

On top of that, the Founding Fathers held policy beliefs that today would simply be incompatible with America’s current position as an international superpower with an economy nearly three times the size of our closest rival.

Washington and Jefferson warned against “entangling alliances”; even the most extreme Tea Party loyalists are not advocating American withdrawal from NATO.

Should Washington promote protectionism, as favored by Alexander Hamilton?

Would government censorship of the media, as carried out by John Adams, be acceptable today?

In short, using the Founders to condemn an opponent’s policies is not a valid avenue of attack. As our population ages and developing countries challenge American supremacy, we are at a turning point in our history.We need real debate, not shallow, fallacious criticism.

View Comments (6)
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  • A

    a studentNov 3, 2010 at 4:16 AM

    Basil, are you serious? I am happy you are passionate, but all you are doing is repeating the same rhetoric of the individuals that you surround yourself with. If you spoke with others, who sought refuge in our country, that have survived different governments, some brutal, some socialists, some communist, you would see how much admiration they have for our founding fathers. What you do here, on this blog, is from the freedom carefully crafted by our founding fathers, withh a series of checks and balances, that must be preserved, or we are in danger of losing them. Does anyone at Wayland High School really feel comfortable expressing a conservative opinion in the atmosphere, that you, your fellow students and many teachers create? Peter Berkowitz is absolutely right. The majority of college students are completely ignorant currently of government and US history and are completely, yes completely, bullied into group think. It is easy Basil for your to write your columns, which I always enjoy reading, when you expouse the views adopted by the "vocal" majority. There is a pavlovian reaction in the world in which you live, here in Wayland , Massachusetts. It is to mock, villify and discredit anyone that does not agree with a"progressive" agenda. But, true courage comes from finding real truth, standing up for it , even when you know you will suffer the consequences.
    Have you really done that? Real truth is not always so conveniently placed in front of us…it requires effort to find and courage to speak, and tenacity to defend.

    Reply
  • B

    BasilOct 27, 2010 at 9:02 PM

    You continue to cherry pick?

    Let's go with your argument that the Founding Fathers were all completely against slavery (which is utterly false despite your selected points above…). The Founders had other beliefs that would still not apply today, which I sample in the column: protectionism, isolationism, and outright censorship among other things (treatment of Native Americans?).

    As I noted at the beginning of this comment, you continue to pick and choose. The Founders were good men, yes, BUT just because they believed one thing does not make it right.

    Essentially, what I'm trying to say is that the argument, often put forth by Tea Party supporters, that the Founders supported something so we today should support it is not valid.

    Reply
    • T

      they're all badNov 2, 2010 at 8:47 PM

      here here mr. halperin!

      I'm a social liberal, and a fiscal conservative. I think we can generally boil it down to this:
      – The Tea Party is polarizing, and quite misguided. Tea Party supporters are against government spending, expansion, and government health care. Tea Party supporters have a strong base in the elderly population, who ironically are on medicare, and get those free old people scooters (paid by the government) to bring them to rallies.
      – The Republicans are slowly loosing support to the radical Tea Party.
      – The Democrats are out of touch and continuing to go on a spending spree.
      – All parties are fighting sneaky and fighting dirty.
      – The American public is happy to tune out the War on Terror, and the government as a whole. They're quite happy to point fingers at Obama rather than understand the problem.
      – Career politicians are the root of many of our problems.

      Reply
  • U

    upsetOct 19, 2010 at 6:47 PM

    Your article is well written, however it does not provide any insight to the other side of the debate. Perhaps you are scrutinizing the Founding Fathers too much, it is irrelevant whether they were "racist, slaveowners" as you fail to note that at THE TIME this was not a horror, and in some areas slavery was accepted as the planter class was the elite with power, and at points in the South, slavery went unquestioned. The bigger picture is that what American needs is to restore the ideals of a united nation under which the beliefs in freedom and democracy prevail. Why did we win the American Revolution? How did we defeat the powerhouse British? We have to believe in a better tomorrow, as Americans have done in the past.

    The problem is that America needs to change, to restore some common values among all of its people so that we can return to one nation again. A real powerhouse, not as we are now where our economy is weakened and we may soon not occupy our long stationed spot as the strongest country.

    Both sides of the story are important, I feel as though the positive outcomes from restoring our the ideals of our Founding Fathers have been obliterated.

    Reply
    • B

      BasilOct 21, 2010 at 9:00 AM

      "I feel as though the positive outcomes from restoring our the ideals of our Founding Fathers have been obliterated."

      I'm not sure I follow your line of reasoning… What positive outcomes would come from restoring "the ideals of our Founding Fathers"? Like I write above, on top of the fact that the Founders were racist (slavery was most definitely controversial at the time), ***their ideas do not apply today***. The world was changed. The US has changed. 'Returning to their ideals' would not be good for America.

      Some of their values, of course, still apply today: freedom, etc. However, one cannot justify a political argument today using the blanket statement of 'the Founder's values' because not all apply today. You cannot cherry pick.

      Reply
      • U

        UpsetOct 25, 2010 at 4:09 PM

        Speaking of cherry picking…..
        What were some of the ideals of the Founding Fathers from your perspective?
        To me, most of the Founding Fathers ideals do still apply.
        – The concept of self government, "for the people" in which cruel governments are restricted based on many "checks and balances"
        – Freedom
        – Liberty
        – Respect as an independent nation

        Was an "ideal" of the Founding Fathers slavery? NO.
        Were you aware that "John Dickinson, Ceasar Rodney, William Livingston, George Washington, George Wythe, John Randolph" (see cited source) of the Founding Fathers, just to name a few, released their slaves?
        Did you know that Benjamin Franklin funded one of the first antislavery movements?
        And "Richard Bassett, James Madison, James Monroe, Bushrod Washington, Charles Carroll, William Few, John Marshall, Richard Stockton, Zephaniah Swift were all members of antislavery organizations".

        Here is a quote from George Washington also included in the following article, “"I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it [slavery].”"

        Owning slaves was not an "ideal". It was the manner with which the Founding Fathers conducted their own economic situations.

        Therefore, of course it is absurd to "return to their ideals" if you view slavery as such an ideal. However, knowing that this concept does not fit the definition of ideals, many of the ideals of the Founding Fathers still apply today and we could use their return to strengthen America.

        "Founding Fathers and Slavery – Were All of America's Founding Fathers Racists, Pro-slavery, and Hypocrites? – ChristianAnswers.Net." Christian Answers® Network™ (ChristianAnswers.Net): Multilingual Answers, Reviews, Ministry Resources, and More! [Home]. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. &lt ;http://www.christiananswers.net/q-wall/wal-g003.html>.

        Barton, David. "WallBuilders – Issues and Articles – The Founding Fathers and Slavery." WallBuilders | Presenting America's Forgotten History and Heroes, with an Emphasis on Our Moral, Religious, and Constitutional Heritage. 01 Jan. 2001. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. &lt ;http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=122>.

        Reply
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Stop idolizing the Founders