The theme of this book is how politics developed in this country by making the so-called Founding Fathers infallible. Over the years both left and right have referred to the FF to justify their current political views. The truth is that there is are no monolithic views of the Founding Fathers. They disagreed with one another. They argued over the meaning of the Constitution just as we do today. The 1790's were one of the most divisive decades in American history, and that was at the very beginning of the country! Everyone quotes Jefferson because he can be quoted on both sides of almost every political issue. Making your political views dependent on the so-called views of the Founding Fathers makes our politics inflexible.
It is mostly conservatives who invoke the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. As soon as you hear a right-winger do this, you know he is projecting his views back into the fast in a specious manner.
". . . . The Founders were eighteenth-century revolutionaries who became politicians. Their political culture vanished even before their deaths. Within that culture they had a number of disagreements that permanently divided them. When politicians invoke the Founders, they call upon a querulous and divided group that did not and cannot offer the guidance that we might wish." P. 241
The Founders do not offer a stable reference point to understand the present. Jefferson said the Founders supported an agrarian way of life. Calhoun said the Founders espoused States Rights. concepts that the Founders are said to support: Economic development (Clay and Adams), slaverys restriction (Lincoln), popular sovereignty (Douglas), business rights (the American Liberty League that was formed in opposition to the New Deal), economic equality (FDR), black civil rights (King), tax cuts and shrinking the national government (Reagan), political moderation (Obama), and the revolutionary power of the people (the Tea Party). P. 242
These different conceptions of what the Founders were about contradict each other and change over time.
"But this exploitation of the Founders tends to debase the political process. It reinforces ideological warfare. It disguises lack of thought behind a veil or propaganda. It dumbs down political debate by ignoring policy trade-offs and neglecting policy evaluation." P. 242
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