Some of the protests at town hall meetings across the country have been a riot. Literally. Thankfully we have avoided serious injuries thus far, despite a NH protester who was packing heat during President Obama’s recent town hall (left).
Seeing stuff like this makes me wonder why there can’t be civil disagreements, and sane discussions about health care, without name calling, demonization, or worse – violence.
But looking back on our history, American politics has never really been civil. Although close friends late in life, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had fierce policy disagreements, and attacked each other ferociously behind the scenes, as well as in the press. It took many years for them to put aside their differences and reconcile.
Abraham Lincoln’s decisions were questioned and attacked mercilessly in the press, often by members of his own cabinet, who either wanted the presidency for themselves, or strongly disagreed about his Civil War policy at the time.
And ignorant protesters? They too are nothing new.
Jefferson’s quote referenced in the sign above is “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.” The rest of that quote basically says rising up, even if you don’t have all the facts, is better than sitting back and doing nothing. Jefferson’s point was that it’s good and proper to take an interest and a stake in one’s government.
But he also understood that the blood watering that tree of liberty was just as much that of the uninformed masses, who perhaps didn’t have all the facts at their disposal, but took up arms anyway, versus the occasional tyrant:
“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them…What signify a few lives lost in a century or two?”
In other words, don’t condemn the uninformed; get the information out there, but deal with the recalcitrant if violence continues in the face of the truth. Fresh from the Revolution, Jefferson expected a few deaths here and there to make a point, lest anarchy rule.
But we are not in the 18th century anymore. Given the ease with which we can find all the information necessary to make sound decisions, bringing guns into presidential town halls and carrying signs talking about “watering the tree of liberty” to me, at least, seems hopelessly and ridiculously outdated.
–Brian
