The Thinking Revolutionaries
The most notable Founding Fathers: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. These were the “thinking revolutionaries” that together “fought a successful war of independence against the mightiest power on earth, created an enduring constitution for their new nation, established stable representative institutions and a system of adversarial political parties, and set the stage for economic development and growing prosperity.” Their brilliance, boldness, and daring have never been surpassed in American history or elsewhere in the world. The path these Framers mapped, as Madison wrote, had “no parallel in the annals of human society.” Thanks to them, Americans were the first free people in history to choose their own form of government. We owe our open society to the moderation and tolerance of these thinking revolutionaries. Flash forward to our present time and look around the world, not to mention at home, for statesmanship and penetrating political thinking of the quality of Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. Please let me know if you find it. I can’t.