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Andrew Niemyer's avatar

Excellent summation. I studied the above-mentioned political philosophers as a very callow undergraduate, and frankly, had a hard time understanding them through their incredibly dense prose. It has taken me years, with multiple revisits, to finally grasp their brilliance, as well as their place in the Enlightenment constellation, all of which informed men like Jefferson and his peers. It's been further study via an ancient fraternity's devotion to such studies that finally, in my near-dotage, that I begin to see the complex weave our Founders gifted us.

Thank you for this delightful summation.

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kellyjohnston's avatar

This is absolutely terrific. I'll be crossposting it for my blog tomorrow (7/4) if you don't mind.

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Claude Berube's avatar

Certainly!

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J. Alex King's avatar

Thank you for posting this. Too often the fireworks are far more in evidence than are the centuries of thought that went into these documents.

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Alan Gideon's avatar

Well stated, sir. One of the important, perhaps the most important, element of the Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights is that our rights are stated as natural rights belonging to all human beings, not something granted to us by a temporarily benevolent government.

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John D. Heubusch's avatar

Thanks for the introduction to this great professor. I wish I'd had him in college. An excellent piece.

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Mike Johnson & Jerry Climer's avatar

Fantastic sharing, Kelly. Your colleague did a masterful job of collecting highly relevant and historically significant background thoughts that most of us never consider as the basis of our foundational documents.

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Robert Clark's avatar

Superbly well done!

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