{"id":824639,"date":"2021-09-28T16:29:19","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T20:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=824639"},"modified":"2021-09-28T16:29:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T20:29:26","slug":"watch-making-america-thomas-jefferson-and-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-making-america-thomas-jefferson-and-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Making America: Thomas Jefferson and Equality"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwatch-making-america-thomas-jefferson-and-equality%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=824639&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-28-at-3.10.21-PM.png?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>In the latest \u201cMaking America\u201d video for PragerU, author and speaker Dinesh D\u2019Souza examines Founding Father Thomas Jefferson and his influence on one of America\u2019s foundational political ideas: equality.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson infamously wrote \u201call men are created equal\u201d and were \u201cendowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.\u201d This founding document would serve as a guidepost for the Framers several years later, when they gathered together to draft what would become the U.S. Constitution.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But in recent years, Jefferson has come under criticism from scholars, academics, and activists eager to take the statesman to task over his stance on slavery.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As D\u2019Souza explains, \u201cJefferson is controversial today because he embodies the contradictions of the founders.&nbsp; Indeed, progressive scholars say, he was the worst of them, the most hypocritical, because the very man who insisted that \u2018all men are created equal\u2019 not only permitted slavery, but himself owned slaves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A similar debate took place just decades after the Declaration was written as well. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>U<\/span><span>.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney wrote that the phrase \u201call men are created equal\u201d could not mean that men were actually equal in his infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision \u2014 a decision in which the court said black people descended from slaves weren\u2019t citizens and didn\u2019t have standing in federal court.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s the key to understanding this contradiction?<span> D\u2019Souza argues we must look at the phrase that says governments derive their legitimacy from the \u201cconsent of the governed.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cHow could these representatives outlaw slavery without the consent of the people in their states? Were they expected to do so by overriding popular consent? In that case, they would be overthrowing democracy itself, before it was even introduced as the bedrock of the new Constitution,\u201d says D\u2019Souza.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Without compromising on the issue, D\u2019Souza says, there would have been no United States, as representatives from several states during the Constitutional convention would have refused to join the new Union.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Jefferson recognized the difficulty of the slavery issue. He once said, \u201cWe have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As D\u2019Souza explains, \u201cIt is not reasonable\u2014in fact, it is downright obtuse\u2014to ask of statesmen to do what they manifestly cannot do. It is only reasonable to ask them to make the best choices available to them under the circumstances\u2014to hold the wolf, in Jefferson\u2019s own terms, until he can safely be let go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Later American political leaders, like President Abraham Lincoln and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., explained that the Founders knew that their situation was not ideal, but that future generations could work together to achieve a fuller realization of the idea.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThat Jefferson didn\u2019t live up to his highest values is not in dispute,\u201d D\u2019Souza says. \u201cBut to deny his greatness and his indispensable role in the creation of the nation is both narrow-minded and foolish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>WATCH:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Thomas Jefferson and Equality: Making America | 5 Minute Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jA2JmC2fQrk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"> <i><span>member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the latest \u201cMaking America\u201d video for PragerU, author and speaker Dinesh D\u2019Souza examines Founding Father Thomas Jefferson and his influence on one of America\u2019s foundational political ideas: equality.\u00a0In the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1893841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-824639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}