Nah. He'd probably be a left-winger, assuming his values were influenced by our current time period rather than his original one. For one thing, the Tea Party is pretty intensely religious. Evidence points to Jefferson being an atheist rationalist. The Tea Party is many, many things, but rational is not one of them.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well they're in favor of cutting spending, and the national debt. That's what Jefferson did. And Jefferson was a deist, I believe. He also wanted very little national government influence in the affairs of states.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The Tea Party is not religious at all. It only focuses on economic issues.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Go Canada :3

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I don't know much about Jefferson personally, but if he was anything like the other founding fathers, then he was basically just a greedy land prospector, which would actually put him more in the republican tea-party backing area, so i would say supporter of but not necessarily member of.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Haha. You're an idiot.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Nothing speaks more of idiocy than replying to a commentt(whether valid or not) with nothing more of a n insult because you are unable to conjure up anything else. And to say that the Tea party is not religious at all, prove you're the idiot; the fact alone huge percentages of evangelical protestants identify with the Teap Party is one reason. Tea Party followers are largely Christians and attend church more regularly than Americans as a whole. So to say that they won't use the bible as reasoning in any of their "logic" would be one fo the dumbest things ever. Officially, they may only work for economic freedom, but to say they're "not religious at all" and that we don't have to worry about some Christian zealot overtaking the party and start pushing social conservatism while talking of small gov't(ha, the irony), makes it seem like you've been brainwashed. Plain and simple, the Tea Party is the perfect puppet and base for the Christian Conservatives. There's much more evidence than what I say; look it up. Doesn't really matter, what little explanations I have used is for more than the four words you give your opponents.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Normally, I would agree with you, but his comment deserved nothing more, and didn't justify a real response. I never denied that most tea partiers were religious. But to then say that means the Tea Party itself is religious is committing the fallacy of composition.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Hey, my comment is based on my "Howard Zinn" school of thought! Just because you don't like it doesn't give you the right to slam it as nonsensical and insult me in the process. I'm a pragmatist and realist, and I don't think the founding fathers were really quite the righteous bunch of rebels you like to romanticize them as. It doesn't mean to say they didn't achieve a lot! Most of history's "heroes" were bastards at some point too. It's one way they got ahead.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

@TommyUK1234 You're comment was not based upon any school of thought. It was based upon baseless prejudice. Here are some fun facts about the "greedy land prospector" Republicans: Republicans make up roughly 54% of Congress. However, of the ten richest congressmen...... 7 are Democrats. Oops. Here's another fun one: Syracuse professor Arthur Brooks conducted a study of philanthropy in America, and found that conservatives give 30% more to charity than liberals do, despite the fact that liberals have higher incomes than conservatives. One more: If liberals and moderates gave as much blood as conservatives do, the blood supply would increase by about 45 percent. Your labeling of Republicans and Tea Partiers as greedy is both completely unfounded and unfair.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

pantherfanatic - go read Howard Zinn's work, and you'll see that my comment IS based on a real school of thought. Also, I'd review philanthropy in official circles with a degree of skepticism - the net is wide and the motives MANY. Through the figures like the ones you quoted just now, you might try and make these people look better, more generous...but those giving people are NOT necessarily the people in power. And being "rich" doesn't make you automatically more immoral. No one so far has claimed that democrats aren't either rich or corrupt. Anyway, the founding fathers of the united states were opportunists. That's what I'm getting at. Parts of them may have believed in the stuff they publicly declared, but their chief motives were anything but those things. Whatever, losing the colonies proved far more profitable and beneficial to my country in the long term. I really don't care so much which party Jefferson would belong to. But as I say, don't just write off my opinion as baseless prejudice - go read a book!

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Not at all. T.J. would be a total Democrat based on how liberal his political philosophy was back in the day.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Democrats tend to favor a larger central government, though. Jefferson followed the Constitution strictly and was more fiscally conservative. He wanted the government out of state affairs, and he even felt awful after the Louisiana Purchase because the President doing such a thing was unprecedented and not in the Constitution. I'd say Republican.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

The Tea Party is extremist and i don't know if TJ would have been able to tolerate that.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I think he'd more likely be freaking out over all the cars, planes, and electricity going on. He'd probably shoot as many people as he can with a blunderbuss or something and then jump off a bridge, thinking it's some sort of dream. That's probably what he'd do.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Maybe libertarian?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Tommy J. would've been his own thing. He was small government in the sense that opposes Republicans with all their wiretapping and stripping of civil rights and whatnot. He would've liked the concept of the social safety net we have now ("promote the general welfare..."), but would've also been appalled at how bloated the programs have been. He'd also be a deficit hawk. Btw, anyone who says the TEA Party is a purely economical group is deluded. What economic policy group complains about taxes at a time when they've never been lower in 60 years while demanding the black president release his birth certificate?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Or...he'd be trying to claw his way out of his coffin

by Anonymous 11 years ago

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=poEo6So0knU

by Anonymous 11 years ago