The tea parties have brought out a lot of heated debate about the role of government and biased media. As a devout centrist, I’m glad these debates are happenning b/c they are the best weapon against tyranny on either side.

I just want to clear the air on two arguments I’ve been hearing a lot lately:

1. DON’T SAY “THE FOUNDING FATHERS WANTED…”

A lot of intelligent people–many of my friends–have been making the statement ”The founding fathers would be rolling over in their graves if they saw the federal government with this much power!” The question is which founding fathers?

The Founding Fathers agreed on one thing only: they didn’t want England ruling us. They fought about every other thing on the agenda…especially Federal Gov’t powers.

THE founding father, George Washington’s hand-picked right-hand man was Alexander Hamilton, who started a party called “The Federalists.” Washington’s successor, John Adams, was a Federalist. I’ll give you one guess about what a party named ”the Federalists” thought about how much power the federal gov’t should have. Answer: A LOT. 

By all means, please voice your views about the danger of too much gov’t power. I’m only requesting that if you want to invoke the Founding Fathers, then just say “Thomas Jefferson would be rolling over in his grave…” That is correct. Jefferson abhorred a powerful federal government. The Founding Fathers as a unit, however, never reached agreement on that point.

2. BIASED MEDIA DOES EXIST & IT ISN’T NEW

Guess what the Federalists did? They printed newspapers with a Federalist spin. Guess what Jefferson’s Democrat-Republican party did? They printed newspapers with a Democrat-Republican spin. Six decades later, guess who openly supported Abraham Lincoln’s bid for president? Whig/Republican newspapers. Guess who openly opposed him? Democrat newspapers.

CNN & the New York Times do present a rosy view of liberal ideas and subtly undermine conservative views. Fox News and the Wall Street Journal do present a rosy view of conservative ideas and subtly undermine liberal views. Both sides do it and it’s not new .  

As a moderate, I try to pay attention to both so I can make an attempt at getting a balanced view. I realize that this is not for everyone, simply b/c it’s time-consuming to follow both. But if you don’t want to watch both, at least do yourself (and the quality of your arguments) a favor and remember this rule of thumb: if the conservative commentator on CNN looks like a clown, beware that you’re probably only getting an incomplete view that liberally-biased producers want you to believe is the conservative viewpoint. And vice-versa from conservative media. They are both trying to sell advertising, and viewers are attracted to news that confirms their views.

Both conservatives and liberals have very sound arguments at their disposal. Just remember that both arguments date all the way back to the Founding Fathers. In that sense, the Founding Fathers are getting exactly what they wanted–an eternal debate.