[BenKenobi]

Allan, oh please don’t go there.

This is a terrible thing. There’s a reason why the Statue of Liberty is the one she is, and that has to do with Athens.

Sparta was their mortal enemy.

[Reily]

Interestingly enough, the Founding Fathers (John Adams in particular) were more admiring of the Spartan state then the Athenian. They particularly admired the Spartan emphasis of duty and sacrifice for the good of the commonwealth. Adams in a letter wish his children to only have a ‘thin cloak to wear & only common fare to eat’ while they were growing up and learning the ropes of life so-to-speak. I am sure this was hyperbole in the letter but its a deliberate invoking of Spartan imagery to raise and educate children with love of country and duty to said country. (This may have been a letter to Jefferson but I am not sure.) Athens to the Founding Fathers was the bad example of the excesses of democracy. Democracy to the Founding Fathers was rule by the mob not rule by the people. The ancient model the Founding Fathers primarily drew their inspiration from was the Roman Republic. The most popular play making its way through the colonies at the time was Addison’s Cato. I think I read somewhere that Washington saw it multiple times and had his own copy of the play. I think I also read, he had it performed in front of the troops. (I don’t remember if it was Valley Forge or not!)

[Optimus Prime]

Seeing as you're going there, Athens isn't a particularly great example to follow, either. It was a place where 30-year-old men were married to 13-year-old girls, who were kept as virtual slaves within their households. They raised pederasty to a fine art. And they were betrayed in the Peloponnesian War by Alcibiades (Much as I imagine Obama will betray us in a major war).

Sparta, on the other hand, was downright magnificent of their treatment of the conquered Athens. The Corinthians and the Thebans, who'd been on the side of Sparta, wanted to slaughter every single adult male in the city. The Spartan commander Lysander, however, in honor of the actions of the ancestors of those Athenians in their wars with the Persians, spared them.