Bradley’s piece ties in nicely with an August 2010 column by Solomon Kleinsmith of The Rise of the Center. At a time when the tea partiers and right-wingers were probably at their pinnacle, Kleinsmith took them to task for deifying the Founding Fathers.
He correctly pointed out that the Founders were a diverse collection of men who had varying — and often conflicting — views for what the new nation and its constitution should stand. Kleinsmith wrote that our forefathers “were not one super wise and monolithic group of people that came to the conclusions that led to our constitution through a measured, and perhaps inspired, process.”
He suggested that those who are busying brushing up on their history and spending a lot of time reading The Federalist Papers also take a look at a bound volume known as the “Anti-Federalist Papers.”
It’s a collection of writings, contemporaneous to The Federalist Papers but compiled many years later, in which the authors argue that the emerging constitution would unfairly omit certain rights for the average citizen. It was partly from this movement that the demand for a Bill of Rights emerged and eventually succeeded.
Here’s a portion of Kleinsmith’s comments about the Anti-Federalist Papers:
“… Two things stuck out that show how silly it is to take The Founding Fathers as if it were gospel. First is that the constitutional congress was nearly a trick. When they first came together most did not come with the intent to create what came of it, and given the lack of preparation, those who opposed the new deal, had to play catch up to try and stop the momentum for ratification.
“The second will remind you of the politics of today (in reality, politics hasn’t changed much). At the time, most people were extremely afraid of concentrated power in the hands of a strong central government, not surprising given their recent struggle against England. Those who wished that the central government would have more power, had the stroke of genius to call themselves the Federalists. Did you catch that? They called themselves the exact opposite of what they were.”
You can read the entire piece here.