[Angelique]

Thank you for the quote from Jefferson to Madison as an example of his wisdom. Do you recall the Blue and Red map of our country from the past election for President? All the blue areas, the large cities, went to Gore.

Jefferson would understand why things are the way they are and why we are the way we are.

It appears that you do not agree with the authors of this article, and that Jefferson would just veg out on the couch and watch the tele, staying here to pay income taxes with a smile on his face.

You, x, are one disrespectful and unappreciative person of your heritage, and the founding of this country.

[x]

Sorry you didn't appreciate my joke. I read so much skepticism about other founders and heroes on FR. Jefferson, who advocated revolution every generation or so and was not troubled by the horrible revolutionary violence in France surely deserves as much skepticism as other great figures of his era and later American history.

While Jefferson would be appalled by the tax rates we have to pay, he'd recognize that such things do happen in societies that don't have a frontier to absorb the poor and give people an opportunity to escape to self-sufficiency and freedom. Jefferson was also heavily indebted in his last years. The idea of giving away 50 or 70 percent of one's income before one even sees it would not have been new to him.