Forum Post: We Are The Middleclass Democrats! Give Us Our Country Back!
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 16, 2011, 7:25 p.m. EST by upbeatmag1
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Democrats have always supported participatory government solutions, I'd have to say the greatest Democrat of all was the agrarian Thomas Jefferson. Everything he wrote was about taking power out of the hands of the elites and giving it to the people. Jefferson above all others trusted the people, ordinary people, people exactly like you and I, to govern themselves. And, since Jefferson either authored or collaborated in most if not all of the documents that founded our nation, surely his vision was the vision that created our country and which still lives on today in the Democratic party.
Think about it. Corporations are founded on charters and by-laws. Our country was founded on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and Bill of Rights, which Jefferson either wrote, co-authored, or inspired. To discover the philosophical underpinnings of our country, and to find a pathway to correct solutions, we need only consult our founding documents, along with the expository letters and papers of those contemporaries who recorded what happened as it happened during the founding of our nation. Take for instance public education. Recently a local Republican legislator, who shall remain nameless, had this to say about public education:
"Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever? It comes from Moscow, from Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell!" Really?
Well.... no, the idea of public education came from Thomas Jefferson, which had two objectives. The first objective of public education was to keep the nation from tyranny. Jefferson believed an educated nation was the best way to keep that from happening. Secondly, Jefferson believed that talent and merit was spread equally across all class levels, and that through public education our nation could mine the populace for talent, and all of our country would reap the rewards. And it has. Education is power. It's not filled with the flames of eternal hell.
Republicans believe in an elite government and that social stratification is inevitable. These ideas are completely anti-democratic. The thousands of blue-collar children who have gone on to fame and fortune because of public education and hard work prove the Republican view is very selfish. Republicans market their views to the unsuspecting middle class by seductively embracing religion and a deeply rooted fear that we will all be left without anything.
The OWS movement is not taking political sides. The 99% are republicans,democrats,socialist,conservatives.
And they are against corporate greed,fraud and campaign bribes/donation that has rendered the democracy useless for the common citizen
I think that both the above post and the comment below, by Benny, are both true. The movement must not by any means exclude Democrats, but Democrats have to recognize that this movent must transcend mainstream politics. People are disgusted with mainstreem politics and politicians, and with absolute justification!. We must come together under the banner of the 99%, and forget about established parties! Otherwise what we are doing here will not succeed!
I agree we should go back to the Declaration of Independence for the answers. No where in it does it say we are owed a free education or free medical. Republicans don't believe in an elite government that's like saying all Democrats communists or socialists. I believe in education and I want every American to have the opportunity to go on to college and they do but that doesn't mean everyone should go to college. Some people just aren't college material. I am a union guy but I don't always agree with my union. I think for myself and I don't blame anyone for the things I don't have and I am proud of the things I do have. People have to stand up for themselves and stop blaming others for the things they don't have and start being proud of the things they do have. Everyone in America is free, lets start there, be proud !!!!!
"These ideas are completely anti-democratic".
We arent a democracy, so who cares if something is anti-democratic?
The origin of the idea doesn't matter, the fact that it is one of the pillars of the Communist Manifesto, however, does matter. So the "local Republican legislator" relating free education to Russia is really quite valid.
Good point of view.