Why do we take the "founding fathers" so seriously in this day and age?

Question

they saw nothing wrong with human slavery, they thought it was perfectlly acceptable and yet we dont admit that their rhetorick is outdated.

Answer 1

You are wrong. They did see a problem with slavery and were not sure what to do with it.  The founding father's developed a very successful form of govt that if left alone will always work. Unfortunately, there is a push to take the power from the citizens and give it to the federal govt. There is push to no longer expect people to care for themselves but for the govt to meet their needs. It will destroy us!  I would like to know what rhetoric is outdated.

Answer 2

Our founding fathers were very wise men. They created a new nation with a new revolutionary government (granted some ideas came from existing forms of government).  The problem with slavery is that no one had a plan that would effectively solve it.  Any plan probably would have caused conflict with southern states at a time when our government was in it's infancy stages.  It could have torn our new nation apart.  Fact is, our nation was founded upon the work and toil of slaves.  Slavery is an embarrassment for our past but I stand up and applaud everyone that fought for emancipation no matter what color they were.  Freedom belongs to everyone.

(remember that slavery has existed all throughout time and still exists in forms today.  It's not just a black and white thing.  All nationalities have faced it in the past or present.  Like I said before...freedom belongs to everyone...no matter race or gender)

Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States....I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in...abhorrence.

-John Adams

Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils.

-Benjamin Franklin

I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we do is to improve it, if it happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery.

-Patrick Henry

It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.

-John Jay

There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.

-George Washington

Answer 3

A good question.  They did come up with a form of government that was outstanding for the age in which they lived.  Democratic versus royalty.

But they were only human.  

So is the constitution - which had 10 amendments added to it almost immediately.  And another 20 over the years.  

Most successful democratic governments around the world are parliamentary types in which the executive is the same party as the congressional majority.  No gridlock!

Answer 4

Most were against slavery, but it is and was a complex issue.  The founding fathers made a radical change in the politics of the world.  Changing the slavery thing at the same time would have been asking too much of some.  Had they held fast to abolishing slavery, the whole movement probably would have failed.

Answer 5

Well, obviously the founding fathers didn't have it All right - they had slaves, and we all know that goes way against "all men are created equal". But just because they weren't right all the time doesn't mean they weren't right about other things. The American constitution was a revolutionary thing. Instead of the king or whatever dictator making a lot of unreasonable laws, the power was with the people instead. The reason we should still take the founding fathers seriously is that, by and large, they understood the precepts of freedom and democracy. It's too bad that they didn't apply those to the slaves.  

Answer 6

It isn't all of our founding fathers that are being spotlighted these days.

It is the Harriett Tubman's and the Alice Paul's and Lucy Burns' that are being talked about. Because without those great people and many others like them, this Presidential election would look much different than it does today.

Those are the people that started the process many years ago, and began to make it possible for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, to be at the D.N.C. and making this historical run that they have made.

I feel gratitude for those who walked the path first and made this whole process, what it has become.  

Answer 7

Yes, we need an update.

Answer 8

its not the founding fathers that we take seriously but rather the constitution....which are the fundamental rules by which our country functions.  The rules are allowed to be changed.  So the rule book is flexible.  You just have to make the changes within the rules.

Answer 9

Slavery was the norm in their day.  Common and perfectly acceptable.  Further, when they wrote "All men are created equal", they were referring to white, male land owners.  Still, the ideals they expressed have been expanded.  "All men are created equal" now is generally considered to mean all humans whatever their gender, race or material wealth.  Their perspectives were limited by the mores of their time, but the ideals of equality among all people and a government by the people, of the people and for the people have not only not yet been achieved, they have been aggressively undermined and opposed since Nixon.  Those ideals need to be revived and just as aggressively reasserted.  For the dignity and hope of everyone everywhere in the world, they must never be considered as obsolete.

Answer 10

We take them seriously because they created a government that has stood the test of time and is the envy of much of the world.

Slavery was and always will be a terrible stain on our founding.  But even back then there were efforts to curb and eventually eliminate it.  And the Civil War settled the issue, at great cost.

Finding examples of cruelty in human history is easy.  Finding examples of a system that works as well as ours is not.

Answer 11

Not everything they said or wrote was as absurd as their tolerance for slavery.    And not all of the founding fathers were slave holders.  But your're right:  with a constitution like we had (before George W got his greasy hands on it), its disgusting to talk about freedom at the same time as allowing slavery to exist.

Answer 12

The founding fathers wisdom is just as relevant today as it was then. Separate church from state, getting away from a monarchy. The " We the people, by the people, for the people" says it all. We have a say in what happens, when it happens, why it happens and to whom it happens. We have a direct say in our politics. We are not at the whims of a monarchy. We have a checks and balances system- congress, senate and judicial that is unmatched in the world. Many of our founding fathers did not agree with slavery, but they knew that they needed the support of the people to make our country independent. They thought to make changes gradually.  

Answer 13

The founders of the US, unlike the vast majority of Americans today, had courage.

They certainly had issues with slavery but their concern with building an economy that could support their efforts to militarize outweighed their compunctions....which, in hindsight was probably justified since Great Britain invaded again 40 years after the end of the Revolutionary war. 40 years after the war of 1812 was over, they abolished slavery once and for all (with the exception of slavery as a punishment for criminal offenses).

Far from their rhetoric being outdated, Americans would do well to review what our founders had to say, particularly with respect to the Declaration of Independence and their prescription for confronting tyranny (namely, to toss the tyrant out on his ear and to kill the tyrant's agents and mercenaries if they dared set foot on our land).

The founders of the US, as alien and foreign as they may seem to me, had balls the size of church bells to tell the largest empire in the world to go f**k itself and its taxes. Far from being outdated, I think the rhetoric of the founders is more relevant today than at almost any other time in US history since the Revolutionary war.