01-31-2009, 02:34 PM
Quote:Granted, equal rights for all races and for women have been a huge positive step. What I'm talking about is the lifting up of all people without dragging down others.
Dragging down others like in... slavery? The "scholarly" founding fathers you so praise were, in the main, slave owners. Their wives and daughters had only slightly more rights than their slaves did. Religion was so free they chased the Mormons halfway across a continent. You can admire the founding fathers for their vision, and for the enduring country they created, and in that we are agreed. But to pretend that the US has fallen from some libertarian grace by eating the forbidden fruit of government is nothing but mythmaking. Alexander Hamilton killed that idea in the cradle, if it was ever more than just dreaming.
Quote:So, that original idea that American labor should not be taxed to be used at the whim of an uncaring ruler to run his empire has been long lost. Now the empire is run from Washington DC.
I believe the slogan was "No taxation without representation." Is it your contention that the government of the US is not elected by the people? I'm as suspicious as anyone of beltway interests and gigantic corporations having undue sway over the American government. But the idea that the original idea of America was "no taxes" is simply incorrect. The idea was representative democracy, and that you still have.
-Jester