Col#284-5/27/26
JEFFERSON’S WISDOM
By
Richard Davis
Every day we wake up to yet another action by a severely mentally ill president and feel helpless to do anything. The frustration has been building for a long time, and it is causing a type of anxiety never before experienced by people all over the world.
Not enough people in this country, or around the world, are willing to do what it will take to bring him down, so we all continue to suffer and watch as the entire world becomes more and more unstable. Not exactly news, but the frustration level is so high that people are forced to figure out how to preserve their sanity.
Protests make people feel like they have some control, but they do not have enough of an impact on the course of events. In other countries, when a leader becomes an out-of-control dictator, the people rise up and rebel. There are a number of places in the world where civil war has raged off and on for a long time.
The people in this country will never openly rebel. We are too divided as a country and Trump has enough supporters to protect him from a forcible ouster. This country was founded by revolutionaries who knew that the only way they could establish a democracy was to go to war against King George III and his army.
As we approach the 250th year of the United States experiment our republic is being torn to shreds and any hope for the rule of law, common sense, and a moral compass to guide us is quickly disappearing.
Thomas Jefferson understood human nature and he knew that a time might come when the leader of the republic tries to destroy the structure of government to benefit his own ends. Here is some of Jefferson’s wisdom.
“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.” It was something he felt was essential in maintaining liberty and protecting us from tyranny. There needs to be a check on government power according to his idea of a good republic. He must be rolling over in his grave because tyranny is now ruling all over this country as ICE and Border Patrol goons abuse their power and terrorize people everywhere.
It’s not entirely clear what Jefferson’s concept of rebellion was but he said that there should be rebellions at least every 20 years. We have had small outbursts of violent protest since Jefferson’s time, but I think we are living in a time when small outbursts and protests are no longer effective.
I doubt we will ever have another civil war, although the divisions of thought in this country are clear enough that there could be two sides to fight against each other. People are too self-centered and lazy to be willing to give up everything they have, including their lives, to fight for a cause.
According to one interpretation of Jefferson’s ideas, “Governments derive their power from the consent of the governed and when they fail to protect the rights of the people, it is not only the right but the duty of the people to alter or abolish such government.”
We are doomed to wait until Trump is gone and then spend decades trying to undo all the damage he has done.
