| fastyxx said: And by the way, Mafoo. Thomas Jefferson never actually said the quote you have in your signature. It SHOULD read as follows: "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy, - - " The difference is subtle, but it comes off as much less "Oh no big government!" as the commonly- misquoted-by-Republicans version. Of course they had to dumb it down for their constituents. However, it seems much less anti-tax so much as anti-WASTE the way he really wrote it, doesn't it? Also much less "They're miserable now, and only government backing off will save the doomed souls" this way too, I think. Funny what a slight change can do. It's so popular right now to be a big founding-father-quoting, Jefferson-loving righty ala G. Beck and R. Paul. Yet much like when people use the Bible or whatever religious text as support, they tend to just skip the ones that don't fit the argument, Righties never really look at ALL jefferson's quotes very closely. And they are big "sorta kinda" paraphrasers like you are, that just give the quotes that extra little touch they need, even beyond cherry-picked ones. I wonder why, since you are such a big fan of Jefferson and responsible spending policy, especially in light of this conversation, why you don't use the first of these quotes instead to sum up the GOP/Bush/Cheney-era responsibility factor. The others are just ones I like, personally, and they seemed appropriate. (and they are actually the words he said, uniquely enough!) "It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which, if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world. --""I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind. --" "Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. --" |
It's probably because Bush and Cheney aren't in power anymore.
He trashed Bush and Cheney plenty when they were in power.
You are literally saying "But you didn't talk trash when Bush deficit spended!"
When... he did.
