Thomas Jefferson: Too Radical For Some

Via Rodent Regatta, comes this Craig Cantoni column showing how the modern media, specifically Washington Week in Review, would react to a man like Thomas Jefferson. Priceless.

Tom Gjelten: Let's don't forget that he also alienated the Religious Right and the Unreligious Left. He alienated the Religious Right by saying, "Whenever... preachers, instead of a lesson in religion, put [their congregation] off with a discourse on the Copernican system, on chemical affinities, on the construction of government, or the characters or conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of contract, depriving their audience of the kind of service for which they are salaried, and giving them, instead of it, what they did not want, or, if wanted, would rather seek from better sources in that particular art of science." Then he alienated the Unreligious Left by speaking about morals: "Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals have an intimate connection."