Socialism? Communism? What do you think?

Check out this blurb:

"The consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislatures cannot invest too many devices for subdividing property… Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on."

Now, without using Google, tell me who you think wrote the preceding text. Here's a hint: It's someone whose name you will instantly recognize. If you read it a couple times, then re-read it again, you come to see that what is being said is that government has a responsibility to insure that poverty has no place in a given society and that governments should tax the the wealthy and not the poor. And the more you make, the more tax you should pay.

Now, perhaps you might think someone like Karl Marx, Michael Moore, or some other noted evil person would propose such abhorrent socialistic methodology, but the truth is that this quote comes from that notable evil communist named Thomas Jefferson. Yes, that Thomas Jefferson. He wrote that in a letter to James Madison in 1785.

See, what I'm really tired of is people who think any one ideology is "right" and all the others are wrong. Believe me, if that was the case I'm pretty sure the planet would've figured that out by now. Rather, it's a meshing from a variety of ideologies that "fits" - and he's the kicker - what fits today will not fit tomorrow. So when I see such partisanship, such divisiveness in our government and our society as a whole, I really just want to smack people. Nobody has all the answers. Not Barack Obama. Not Rush Limbaugh. Not David Hasslehoff.

You want to fix this country? Let smart people make smart decisions. Don't vote for someone because he's a Democrat, or a Tea Partier, or a Christian, or because he speaks well to crowds. Vote for people who are smart and listen to other smart people - and people who are smarter than they are - and make smart decisions. Then we can start to make progress as a society.