Do You Still Believe In The Tooth Fairy AND The Founding Fathers?

Most Americans know that the framers met for three months in closed session, but this is generally forgiven on the grounds that the then Congress of the United States had not commissioned them to write a new Constitution, and neither revolutionaries nor counter-revolutionaries can do all their work in the open. What few modern-day Americans realize, however, is that the framers did their best to ensure that we would never know the details of their deliberations. All the participants in the convention were sworn to life-long secrecy, and when the debates were over, those who had taken notes were asked to hand them in to George Washington, whose final task as chairman of the convention was to get rid of the evidence. American's first president, it appears, was also its first shredder.

Fortunately, not all the participants kept their vows of silence or handed in all their notes. Bit it wasn't until 1840, a half century after the Constitution was put into effect, with the posthumous surfacing of James Madison's extensive notes, that the American people could finally read what had happened in those three crucial months in Philadelphia. What was revealed was neither divine nor diabolical, but simply human, an all-too-human exercise in politics. Merchants, bankers, ship-owners, planters, slave traders and slave owners, land speculators, and lawyers, who made their money working for these groups, voiced their interests and fears in clear, uncluttered language; and, after settling a few, relatively minor disagreements, they drew up plans for a form of government they believe would serve these interests most effectively. But the fifty years of silence had the desired myth-building effect. The human actors were transformed into "Founding Fathers." Their political savvy and common sense were now seen as all-surpassing wisdom, and their concern for their own class of property owners (and, to a lesser, extent, sections of the country and occupational groups) had been elevated to universal altruism (in the liberal version) or self-sacrificing patriotism (in the preferred conservative view).

The Founding Fathers were privileged assholes who worked for their own interests. And their main claim to fame, the overly hallowed US Constitution, sucks and is no more than the codification of property owners holding rights superior to those of the peasantry.

Even as a bourgeois-democratic document, it really, really sucks. I'm talking about more than the obvious here: more than about how juridical and political "rights" don't impinge on economic society in the worlds richest country, more than about the institutionalization of only two parties, more than the observation that the commoner's House of Lords (the Senate) has more power than the legislature, more than the meaning of why it takes several more amendments 80 years after the first ten to establish that former slaves count as "humans" too and are candidates for "Human Rights" (and another 100 years to implement even those), and more than the two hundred other details that have become obvious in the last few years, such as the inability to recall a government except by criminal trial or coup.

I am talking about the fact that Bush and now Obama have exposed the absolute power of the "presidency", a power hidden only because of the collusion of the major political parties for the entire life of the Republic. It appears that in this system, there are no limits whatever on the powers of the presidency save elections every 4 years (which would not have counted as "democracy" even in the 18th century), and the only reason that it even appeared that there were any such limits was exclusively the result of a voluntary super-constitutional etiquette practiced by the political participants but in no way enshrined in law. All it took was one asshole to show it all up.

Let me say it as controversially as possible - The constitution wasn't usurped, wasn't diluted, wasn't undermined; it was always like this.

Which means that the U.S. is governed by among the most primitive of current day political charters and that there is much less democracy here than in most recently established bullshit quasi-democracies, even by bourgeois standards... and this is said by someone who thinks that "democracy" don't mean shit, even when it's real.

From:
Steve Lendman

"The whole process we call a first-class historical event was, in fact, an entirely routine uninspiring political caucus producing no "prodigies of statecraft, no wonders of political (judgment), no vaulting philosophies, no Promethean vistas." Contradicting everything we've been "indoctrinated from ears to toes" to believe, the notion that the Constitution is "a document of salvation....a magic talisman," or a gift to the common man is pure fantasy.

The central achievement of the convention, and a big one (until the Civil War changed things), was the cobbling together of disparate and squabbling states into a union. It held together, tenuously at best, for over seven decades but not actually until Appomattox "at bayonet point." The convention succeeded in gaining formal approval for what the leading power figures wanted and then got it rammed through the state ratification process to become the law of the land."

I suppose all our Neo-Cons flock to their Faith Based Lobotomy.
How many miles per Neo-Con do you get in a "lobotomobile?"

The faith of our founding fathers makes no difference - times change.

The Deism of many of the "founding fathers" was often called "the halfwayhouse to atheism". A means of denying supernatural intervention in the world without denying the existence of God, it claimed that God created the clockwork of the universe in the original act of creation but thereafter only watched the results of His creation, allowing the laws of science to rule.
Tony Vodvarka

This article has very good points. I might add with the exception of Patrick Henry, none of the founding fathers would be counted as conventional Christians and that includes George Washington. He may have been an Anglican during the time he served in the Virginia militia as part of a force that was at the service of the British empire and under duress to do this, but he was a Deist, which says he wouldn't at the time be really counted at all with what the Christian religion then counted as Christian. The fiction of the Judeo/Christian tradition being the basis for the founding of this country is clearly false, and needs to get out to the mass of people in this country. This says nothing directly against those today who are of the Judeo/Christian tradition, but is an important fact. It also is important to note the founding fathers' firm belief in separation of church and state which right wingers today have done their damn best to air brush out of our history text books at secondary school and even maybe university level. They want to erase these facts to favor their own hidden agenda to create a theocratic tyranny. That's what the state of Britain was when the 13 colonies took up arms against that state in the 1770s.

AD

In some future classroom, will the Corporations be referred to as the Funding Fathers?

whereas, in truth, the taxpayer is the funding fodder.

A good article that will give religious zealots dyspepsia.

And yet we have In God We Trust printed on our money and Under God in our Pledge of Allegiance which I had to say everyday in public school as a kid even though I was a fourth generation atheist as my father was proud to remind me when I was growing up.

"But Washington was famously painted half-naked in the buff toga of the Roman Republic, which continues to inspire much of our official architecture."

The many towns named for places in the classical world is another indication of the "pagan" orientation.

"Today's fundamentalists would have DESPISED the actual Founders. Franklin's joyous, amply reciprocated love of women would evoke their limitless rage. Jefferson's paternities with his slave mistress Sally Hemings, Paine's attacks on the priesthood, Hamilton's bastardly philandering"

Of course, many of today's fundamentalists do the same things - just not on Sunday morning when they profess to be pious Christians.

harvey wasserman---great comments. of course this is mostly familiar to many folks. i will say that leafing through the comments at the Times site for this article finds virtually NO mention of the native Americans.

Many modern Americans are happy to expose the theologically liberal nature of the Enlightened Founders (including the vast numbers of farmers & sailors and urban artisans). But most are unwilling to face up to the true source of what freedom and democracy we enjoy---the inspiration of the natives, most importantly the Hodenosaunee (Iroquois).

When Glenn Beck says "They" (the liberals) are going to slaughter you, he means "We."
A reality reversal strategy is operational here.
It goes like this: We are what the liberals are saying we are, accusing them of being what we are.
Watch, and you'll see.
Another example: "The Democrats are out to destroy the middle class."
How many times over the past, say, thirty years have liberals been demonized by these killers?
Are they just threatening us with death or do they mean it?

True true, they were not religious fundies to be sure. Most were educated men, well versed in the enlightenment and liberal literature and ideas of the day

However they were wealthy, white, elitist and racist - many of them hypocrites who owned slaves and considered native Americans savages and sub-human.

I do not look up to them or hold them as heroes as many others do. This is just part of the nationalist myth that we are brainwashed with very early on.

Great article but a few points need to be made. Ethan Allen was a Deist, not an atheist. His religious views can be read in "Reason, the Only Oracle of Man". There is real evidence that Lincoln, while more of a savior of the nation than a founder also had Deistic beliefs. Finally, Tom Paine should be listed not only for possibly saving the revolution, but as the most outspoken Deist of all. His "The Age of Reason" is the classic American work on Deism. While it is true that American leaders were largely Deist, many of the common folk would have considered themselves Christian. Paine suffered great vilification for expressing his religious views and is the foremost revolutionary not to be honored in D.C. However, even the Christianity that many common folk had has nothing much in common with today's right wing extremist version.

harvey wasserman---yes, the Enlightenment, which had Franklin as its greatest representative, embodied the essence of Deism, which in many ways comes from the Golden Ages of Greece & Rome. not only do the Fundies ignore native America (to put it midly) but they studiously avoid any mention of Athens & the early days of Rome, in which the transition was made to a mixture of mild paganism and serious humanism....

these fundies would have been right in there killing Socrates and crucifying Spartacus....

joshuafalchion
Fundies and conservatives generally need the founders on their side in order to maintain their patriotic credibility, and are more than happy to ignore the facts or attempt to change them to achieve this end. They profess to love freedom, and they do--economic freedom. But real freedom--social freedom--is anathema to them, and to the majority of Americans as well, which makes our nation at worst hypocritical and at best immature.

We need not fear dangers from outside sources. We will destroy ourselves from within. We are our own worst enemies. Today's Americans are hazardous to the nation's health. RIP USA

RJW

"America's most influential statesman, thinker, writer, agitator, publisher, citizen-scientist and proud liberal libertine was---and remains---Benjamin Franklin."

They came to America to get away from conservatives in the first place.

Bravo mcoyote, articulately put. I am sure Howard Zinn and others would agree.

The founding fathers knew that tyranny comes from rulers who use religion to control others and think irrationally themselves. The wall separating religion from politics cannot be taken down if the republic is to avoid sliding into a tyranny.

Government needs to stop meddling for Big Religion and Big Business.

"Government that governs the least governs the best." - Thomas Jefferson

Aussidawg:"But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." Thomas Jefferson Notes on Virginia 1782." That may have been true back in the 1700's . But when my neighbor says that his/her God is against homosexuality, birth control and abortion even to save a woman's life and this discriminates against me or my friends .Such as I am denied a job because they think I am gay and I have no money in my pocket to pick. Or I am forced under penalty of law to give birth against my doctors advice and sustain permanent injury much worse than a broken leg. Many fundamentalist who say there is a god, want to make it a law that we all follow their radical beliefs. They have done and can do much worse than break your leg or pick your pocket if they are allowed to control legislation and U.S. laws.

It is interesting that the Iroquois are a matrilineal society and that their civic laws greatly influenced the early American founders.

The reason that it was only the Iroquois men who represented the peoples is that the British refused to consider speaking to women who were elders of the councils.

Bring America Back !!!!....!!!..God bless ye, Sir Harvey !

we the people must not allow these crude fundamentalists to rule the day. Its interesting to note that the Tea-Party, using patriotic imagry, represents the opposite values of the founding fathers. I cant imagine Sarah Palin as a true representative of the founding fathers ideals. She is more likely the representative of fascism.

If there is a god he owes the world an apology.
Hoa binh

Thanks for a painless eye-opener.

Americans United Against Separation of Church and State is a tough set of tar babies. Never hit them with a bare hand or foot. A good tactic is to attend their church services and during the sermon blandly consume hard candy wrapped in crinkly cellophane. Singing off key can also get their goats. Put Canadian money in the collection plate, unless you are in Canada.

But those who mount intellectual arguments forget that Baptist and other Clergy owned slaves for 200 years whilst peeing on the pithy arguments contained in abolitionist pamphlets. "Send us a sign," they insisted and eventually it came in the form of William "Tecumseh" Sherman. And when some hyped Xtians put their agenda in my face (see MI Rep. Stupak) I smile and say: "I'm going to free your slaves no matter how hard you try to keep them".

The US constitution was at least a good new start, but looks like the new Boss same as the old Boss.
The Diests were certainly better than King George. Just a new wave of Atavistic Murder prevailing. When will it ever end?

Dafoe
They should have stuck with mad George, the nation might have a more representative guvmint, this one represents only the super rich, who, by the way, have been assured by the fundamentalists inc.that they can get a camel thru the eye of a needle.
Of course the founding fathers looked after their own interests, what we need today is another gathering on overhauling the constitution, a Constitutional Convention, but who has the "guts" to do bring that about, sara palin?