The Democrat Party is no longer worthy to call itself the Party of
Jefferson. It would be more accurate to describe it as the Party of Marx,
as it now has far more in common with the ideas of socialism and communism
than republican democracy.

The Democrat Party is no longer worthy to call itself the Party of
Jefferson. It would be more accurate to describe it as the Party of Marx,

The Democrat Party is no longer worthy to call itself the Party of
Jefferson.

The Democrat Party is no longer worthy to call itself the Party of
Jefferson. It would be more accurate to describe it as the Party of Marx,
as it now has far more in common with the ideas of socialism and communism
than republican democracy.

If you think this is an outlandish claim, consider how a "modern" Democrat
would respond to the following statements:

1. "Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It
is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions,
to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power."

2. "In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man,
but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

3. "If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or
to change its republican form,

of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason
is left free to combat it."

4. "With respect to the words general welfare, I have always regarded
them as qualified by the detail of powers (enumerated in the
Constitution) connected with them. To take them in a literal and
unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a
character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its
creators."

5. "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the
Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects
of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

6. "Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased,
and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if there be, as
any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead
or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of
injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument
to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as
an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it. We have the
right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we
please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to
appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have
been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr.
Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in
office to the day of his death, and I ever heard that the government
was in arrears to him."

7. "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity.
[To approve such spending] would be contrary to the letter and the
spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon
which the Union of these States is founded."

8. "I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in
benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public
funds. ... I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the
Constitution."

George McGovern would go ballistic if someone made those statements today
... describing such sentiments as reactionary ... and even un-American.
Yet, these sentiments where expressed by adherents to republican
democracy.

I mean, you've got Ted "Red" Kennedy (the poster child of the modern
Democrat Party) calling John Ashcroft "extreme" and "un-American" when
Ashcroft had the temerity to quote the Founding Fathers thoughts
concerning the Second Amendment.

The fact is that the modern Democrat Party loves Big Government ... it
loves to trust public employees (read: bureaucrats) ... and it loves to
promote class/race/gender/etc. warfare among the citizenry. In other
words, it's everything Jefferson was not. Modern Democrats should be
ashamed of themselves for having allowed their Party to stray from the
classical liberal path.

Democrats go about growing the government by promoting the welfare State.
Republicans go about it by promoting the warfare State. They don't seem to
care much about the constraints placed on them by the U.S. Constitution.

Most Democratic voters are too clueless or too apathetic to give a rat's
***** about any of the above. Most Democrats are more interested in how much
luxury they can shower upon themselves than bothering to ask whether THEIR
government is living within the bounds of the Constitution. So, Democratic
politicians aren't entirely to blame for the rampant deviation from the
constitutional limits of the federal government. But, on the other hand,
leaders are supposed to lead ... not follow. If we had real Democratic
leaders in Congress instead of political whores, we'd have people in
public office that still cared about the Constitution ... instead of
obsessing about their next election.

QUOTE SOURCES:

1. Thomas Jefferson
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. James Madison, author of the Constitution (Speaking about the
"General Welfare" clause of the U.S. Constitution)
5. James Madison (1792 -Congress appropriated $15,000 to assist some
French refugees)
6. Colonel David "Davy" Crockett (1829 -House of Representatives
considered a bill to appropriate money for the benefit of a widow of
a distinguished naval officer
7. Franklin Pierce, our 14th president, upon vetoing the bill (1854
Congress passed a bill to "help" the mentally ill)
8. Grover Cleveland, our 22nd and 24th president, upon vetoing the bill
(1887 -Congress passed an appropriation bill to "help" drought-stricken
counties in Texas)