The Founding Fathers: When Were They Right, When Were They Left

Are you putting words in my mouth?

The Early Modern Period was the age of Shakespeare and Elizabeth, of the Reformation. It was not the Age of the Enlightenment which was separated from the Reformation by the Age of Reason.

The Early Modern Period was the age of Shakespeare and Elizabeth, of the Reformation. It was not the Age of the Enlightenment which was separated from the Reformation by the Age of Reason.

I, in turn, disagree with Plainoldme's disagreement. I think today's conservatives are closer to the general political attitudes of America's founding-era. (Which is a bad thing about today's American conservatives.)

I'm sorry but historians do define the Early Modern Period as the time of Shakespeare and Elizabeth.

No, the Renaissance follows the Middle Ages. Then comes the Reformation (sometimes the Counter Reformation is put in after the Reformation). The Reformation goes hand-in-hand with the invention of the printing press and the two together signal the beginning of the Early Modern Age. The Early Modern Age is followed by the Age of Reason and then by the Enlightenment.

That's basically correct but the situation was sooooo much more complex.

One thing that people seem to never take into account is the difference is technology makes in political philosophy. Rich farmers like Jefferson and Washington, despite being scientifically sophisticated for their day, would never imagine our world and our world in technological terms does shape our politics.

What they really were was an association of terrorist slaveholders. As terrorists, they recklessly disregarded the rules of civilized warfare as commonly understood in their time, and as the British Army generally respected it. As slaveholders, they hypocritically marketed their devious cause as a fight for freedom. In reality, of course, Americans would have been freer much sooner if the Rebellion had lost their war to the lawful authorities. Certainly, slavery would have ended as soon as it ended in Canada. It's worth pointing out that the British army freed the slaves in all the Southern territories it occupied. The "freedom-loving" "Founding Fathers", by contrast, lynched or re-enslaved them as quickly as they could get hold of them.

favored a small federal government, incapable of doing to the States what Britain tried to do to the colonies. The fault line of political disagreement back then was whether the US government can establish a National Bank. Today, only conservative crank politicians try to abolish the Fed anymore. By this measure, then, the founding fathers were conservative. Generally speaking, states rights tend to be a cause of today's rights, though they did have distinguished liberali champions as well. (See Louis Brandeis.)

if revived today, would suit today's conservatives more than today's liberals.

imagine that, if any of the founding fathers came back to life today and regarded the political situation, they would all be appalled at the rampant "liberalism" going on.