The Founding Fathers were by no stretch of the imagination, pure geniuses. Yet, we must be realistic of their actual situation as human beings. In the time of infancy of the Union, our founders were considered to be something of an aristocracy. They would be considered the modern day 1%. Not the .001% like the real people we need to be weary of, but the 1% that can seem distant and detached from the common citizen but doesn't fly to conferences and $10k dinners every other weekend.
Still, even with this knowledge, we cast these men in the light of the times. George Washington grew hemp and smoked bud! He had to be a cool guy, right? Well, he was also one of the largest slave owners in the colony. I know most of my black brothers and sisters take offense to this and condemn any works of this old cherry tree chopping white man, but I implore people of color to identify times that the colonies were living in. A man can be brilliant and be short-sighted in his lifestyle habits. But I digress.
Despite all of the shortcomings of Washington, we must identify the small acts he committed that changed the world. His stepping down from Presidency although so many begged him to stay, was a revolutionary act. In a time where dictators and royalty were rife, Washington denied the title, pushed back from the table, folded and went home. Washington's retirement prevented the newly formed America from becoming a dictatorship.
SLAVERY?
In fact, so many things that the Founding Fathers did laid the foundation for liberty in its true form, something they knew could not be had for all in the time. The topic of slavery is highly debatable in the time of the 13 colonies. In that era, the British Empire had already outlawed slavery, yet the colonies continued the practice. Of course, the British Empire was being deceitful with this policy as they wouldn't physically put people in chains, but their imperial system suppressed so many cultures around the world, so much in fact, that it wasn't until the 20th century when colonies like China and India could truly break away.
So slavery comes in many forms. But on the topic of slavery, there were many reasons why the American aristocracy didn't wish to outlaw slavery. In 1790, 48.5% of the population lived in the south. To keep stability in the shaky new republic, the Northern aristocrats had to compromise. There was much debate about whether the slaves should be counted in a census of population. This was a cause for concern before they decided on representation or power of the states based upon population. This is why we have a senate and a congress. One has its number of representatives based upon population, the other does not. This is also the reason why slaves were counted as only 3/5 of a person. It was a technicality based upon compromise. It doesn't seem to have a purely racist, nefarious purpose.
The right to vote, we must remember, was denied to white men as well. White men who did not own land were in the same boat with women and blacks, at least when it came to voting. This is why I dislike it so much when I hear a person say, "But back then you couldn't vote unless you were a white man who owned land!" This is true, but if you are not well versed in your history you wouldn't understand that not all white men owned land.
Often times the brutality that was given to black slaves in the south came from white men who either were simple share-croppers (meaning they didn't own the land), farm hands (white men who worked the land as "supervisors"), or mid-level land owners (white men who owned land yet weren't particularly wealthy. I find it hard to imagine a very wealthy white southerner doing the dirty work of beating the slaves. It doesn't mean that they didn't give the orders for brutality, but if they didn't do it themselves this shows the lack of conviction.
My point in saying this is racism was very real in early America, but we must understand that the men who actually ran America had a fear of the black man in a different way than that of the poor white man in America. The poor white man in America feared the black man the way we fear illegal aliens today. Their place on the social and economical ladder was threatened. The upper crust white man was only scared of the black man in the political sense. The southern white feared that if they freed the blacks or allowed free northern blacks to vote, they would "take over". I guess it was the same fear just in a different sphere of life.
So what did these fearful white men and women do? They launched campaigns to discredit the black and created false "scientific" information for our inferiority. Whatever. It wasn't the first time this was done in the world. My point with this is that if most black people were aware that the racism in America stems from insecurity rather than deep emotional hatred, they would view racism in a completely different light. No one wakes up one morning and just starts hating without cause and colonial America was no different. The racism toward the black man or the red man started with fear and insecurity. As Yoda says, "Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering."Hatred is a by-product of fear.
PRIVATE INTEREST?
Okay, back to the Founding Fathers. The founders were looking out for numero uno, plain and simple! This wasn't as bad as you think, though, because they made the laws for all citizens based around the way they wished to be treated. They were fearful of tyranny, fearful of their equally intelligent and wealthy colleagues taking over the US and declaring a new Monarchy. Their sweet paranoia laid the ground work for the freedoms we have today. For example, the Bill of Rights, but more specifically the 4th amendmend: the freedom from unlawful search and seizures. Or how about the 3rd, that states you don't have to house soldiers if you don't wish to. At the time, these two amendments protected people (mainly themselves) from something that was more or less a European tradition! A group of military thugs, during a battle or something would just bust into peoples homes, take their goods, rape their women and sleep there before moving on. This still goes on today, but in America, by law we can defend ourselves against this blatant violation of human rights with the 2ND 2ND 2ND AMENDMENT!!
So who's in control here? I don't think that many Americans feel (especially now) the self-determination that our Founding Fathers had hoped to create. The right of self-determination was obviously of great value to the founders, yet may not have always been seen by the governed. This is where my thought process may get sticky for some. Although the founders behaved like a modern day special interest group or think tank (or is it the other way around?) their actions do differ where it counts.
Although, many who were not land owners could not vote, the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights paves the way for equality for people decades if not centuries in the future. What most may not understand is that innovators are usually way ahead of their time. Because they are timeless men and women, their lifestyles seem to contradict their words, because they have to live in a similar manner as the people who are stuck in the time they live or be treated as "witches" or "devil-worshippers" or lepers or mad men. I do not know why Washington or Jefferson had so many slaves when their words spoke of other things. Yet, I look at the fruits of their aims: America, and I see that the beginnings of their dream come to fruition.
Like Martin Luther King saying, "I may not get there with you..." innovators do not expect to see the beauty of their dreams in their lifetimes. They know of the stubborn close mindedness at which they must hack away. So as the actions of the father's could be condemned they pale next to the special interests of their modern day "counterparts".
The special interests of today wish to create a society of the worker bee. The Founding Fathers wished to create a society where anyone could work their way out of their positions in life through Education and (yes) Religion into their vision of enlightenment.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never can be."
-Thomas Jefferson-
Our modern republic was meant for a highly educated population. Thus, the decline of the power and beauty of America. The more dumbed down the people become the more easily swayed and convinced that we live in a democracy and not a Republic. Because of this, so many special interest groups are influencing the education system with lobbies in Washington, D.C. Uh...Common Core? These same groups are funded by large companies that simply wish to swell their ranks with uneducated disempowered slaves!!
Founding Fathers vs. Special Interest?
All in all, the founders and the special interests of today look almost exactly the same. The brothers of liberty seem the same as the Council on Foreign Relations or Trilateral Comission. The difference to me, that makes all the difference: THE METHODS. Think Tanks of today wish to create a utopia through depopulation and controlled economies, because they think the masses are too dumb to create utopia on their own. This is an excuse for a practically literal allergy to the "unwashed masses". The Founding Fathers wished to create a utopia through an allowance of freedom, human rights, free markets and the like. We now have homeland security and NSA spying for the purpose of "creating a freer society". This method only breeds more of the same. If we don't wake up to the real essence of FREEDOM, we'll be easily duped by the double think of "Freedom is Slavery"
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