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"What would Jefferson have thought of the Democratic Party's expansion of government, from the New Deal to the Great Society and now 'New Deal 2.0' being quietly drawn up in anticipation of their party controlling the federal government in 2009? Would it anger him that over 30 percent of the nation's income is devoted to paying taxes, forcing Americans to work nearly four months just to pay off the government? Would he have endorsed earmarks, those pernicious projects stealthily inserted into spending bills to protect the incumbency of their sponsors?
"Thomas Jefferson was a defender of the citizen's right to bear arms. In his 'commonplace book,' a scrapbook containing statements and other items of interest to the book's owner, Jefferson included the following from Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria, an Italian philosopher:
"'Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.'
"Would he endorse the Democratic Party's attempts to wrest guns from law-abiding citizens and their belief that gun owners, to paraphrase Senator Joe Biden, ought to have their heads examined or, in Senator Obama's words, are 'bitter'?"
