I have intended to add some thoughts on the US election many times and then found myself either too overwrought or more usually too tired to follow through on the random notes I tend to make. But thinking about how the second debate went and some articles on the reception of Sarah Palin and just what the likes of Jefferson and Adams would think of the level of political discourse, I went looking around for some historical background. And I've found this, which sort of says it all:

"I sincerely wish... we could see our government so secured as to depend less on the character of the person in whose hands it is trusted. Bad men will sometimes get in and with such an immense patronage may make great progress in corrupting the public mind and principles. This is a subject with which wisdom and patriotism should be occupied." --Thomas Jefferson to Moses Robinson, 1801.

Bad men and their patronage have got America where it is today, internationally reviled, economically defunct and with the likes of Sarah Palin in the running for Vice-President at the hands of cynical opportunists, intellectually paralysed. Democrats have allowed the Republicans to steal the concept of patriotism and redefine it in their own image, throwing in the flag for good measure to create a religion of nationalism which is as close to idolatry as any secular belief system I can think of. That version of patriotism cannot question what is done in its name, nor seek for explanations about why the country has become a byword for hatred, deceit and selfishness, nor look to the horizon and beyond for some humility as to its place amongst nations. As for wisdom, apparently John McCain is meant to be what passes for it now, according to his campaign.

Jefferson just wouldn't get elected today.