The mainstreaming of Jacobin tendencies into American politics.
Mr. niteowl77
I can see calling Jefferson a leftist, but not so much a Jacobin. Yes, he supported the French revolution at first. But he was a revolution kinda guy, though certainly not a reign of terror guy. He did seemingly drop all his libertarian principles upon descending to the presidency, but didn’t rule like Robespierre. Not even like Lincoln or FDR, and certainly not like later leftist revolutionaries.
You may argue leftism is all of a kind, and the license part inevitably leads to the despotism part. I think that’s relying far too much on terminology to do your thinking for you. Also, though I say I can see calling him a leftist, actually I think he was a liberal. That makes for more of a drawn out argument, given how many types have been labelled liberal since Jefferson.
Leave it as if Jefferson is a leftist, he is not of the kind which leads to death camps. He is of the liberal kind. If there is no such kind, then he is not a leftist and is closest to libertarians.
By the way, do today’s liberals, i.e. socialists, even bother claiming Jefferson? Or if they do, do they do so convincingly? I ask because I know libertarians do. They can’t shut up about them. And however many differences there are between conservatives and libertarians one thing we know is they hate socialists and socialists hate them almost more than us conservatives, except when it comes to war, sex, and drugs, broadly speaking.