I was wondering what the Founding Fathers would think about the condition of the nation they formed. Would they be pleased? What would they change? Would they agree that freedom of speech means elected government officials have the right to express “death to America” attitudes? Maybe they’d be OK with that. After all, the process of putting these America-haters in office falls to the people who elected them.

Obviously, life in America is much more complicated today than it was 250 years ago. No longer an agricultural society, we have technology that couldn’t have been imagined then. In the 19th century, ordinary people like us didn’t participate much in the government. It’s different today.

I’m sure Tom Jefferson and the others would be happy that the Constitution remains integral to how we govern. But if they had access to social media, they’d very quickly conclude that one of the causes of the deep divide between liberals and conservatives is a result of how each interprets the Constitution and their beliefs about the role of government in the lives of “we the people.”

The Fathers might conclude that the Constitution faces challenges because of our political polarization. How could a system of checks and balances work, given the strains this division presents? “When political parties prioritize partisan loyalty over institutional responsibility, those constitutional elements designed to prevent tyranny might not function as intended. A constitutional government requires formal structures and, many times, civility, compromise, and respect for democratic processes.”

Digital media heavily influences the government’s political outcomes and public opinion, often by spreading misinformation that results in polarization between parties. When the Constitution was ratified, politicians campaigned by publishing information in newspapers. Today, we receive endless streams of (polarized) news and opinions presented by algorithms to fit their interests and beliefs. Had the Founding Fathers written the Constitution during the Internet age, how might it differ from the original 18th-century document?

But I think their biggest takeaway would be their assessment of how uninformed and stupid Americans are about issues that affect us. We are inundated with information. We can’t process it all, so we trust those who sound smart and align most closely with our worldview. Soon, we believe their views are original to us. We don’t think much about what we believe or why we believe it.

Here’s a good exercise to do on your commute to or from work. Think about a belief you have and ask yourself, “Where did this belief come from, and does the source have something to gain if I believe it?” Give it a try.

Here are some quotes from our Founding Fathers you might enjoy. Then ask yourself, “How do our current leaders adhere to these? You probably won’t be surprised to learn how far we are from the beliefs of the founders of this great nation. And if you don’t agree that this is a great nation, ask yourself why.

“To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association-the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”
Thomas Jefferson

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams

“If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted . . . . If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.”
Noah Webster

“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”
James Madison

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
Thomas Paine

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
Benjamin Franklin

“We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.”
Thomas Jefferson

“The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.”
Benjamin Rush

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams

“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”
Thomas Paine

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Benjamin Franklin

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.”
Thomas Jefferson

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God.”
George Washington

We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!
John Adams

“No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
Noah Webster

“A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district–all studied and appreciated as they merit–are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty.”
Benjamin Franklin

“Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.”
Noah Webster

“There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.”
Thomas Jefferson

“If the children are untaught, their ignorance and vices will in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by a good education.”
Thomas Jefferson

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson

“If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav’d. This will be their great Security.”
Samuel Adams

“It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.”
Noah Webster

“If free speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
George Washington

“The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.”
Thomas Jefferson

“The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority’s ability to harm a minority.”
James Madison

“Government is instituted for the common good…not for profit, honor or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men.”
John Adams

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
Thomas Jefferson

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
John Adams

“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”
John Adams

“The establishment of civil and religious liberty was the motive which induced me to the field.”
John Jay

“I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.”
Thomas Paine

“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.”
Benjamin Franklin

“It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part.”
Benjamin Franklin

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
Benjamin Franklin

“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.”
John Adams

“The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”
Thomas Jefferson

**I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
Thomas Jefferson

“Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.”
James Madison

“To disarm the people… was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”George Mason

© Jeff Lossau – March, 2026