Obama's Anti-Americanism

[Publius]

You have not provided any quotes in which the Founding Fathers actually define what they mean by general welfare.

I recently came across this good site for Jefferson quotes. Here is Jefferson talking specifically about the benefits of wealth redistribution:

"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 rights have been so far extended as to violate natural rights. " --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1785. ME 19:18, Papers 8:682

And on welfare:

"The poor who have neither property, friends, nor strength to labor, are boarded in the houses of good farmers, to whom a stipulated sum is annually paid. To those who are able to help themselves a little, or have friends from whom they derive some succor, inadequate however to their full maintenance, supplementary aids are given which enable them to live comfortably in their own houses, or in the houses of their friends. --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.

I'm imagining this is you after reading that.

But seriously, that site is a treasure trove of quotes from Jefferson on government.

[Publius]

Is it not the freedom of choice that this country was founded on? the freedom to choose what you said, the freedom to choose what, if any, religion to follow? Then why is it considered good to steal from those who could have given freely to the cause of others... This country, no matter what argument you bring up or define illogically, was built on the freedom from the arbitrary will of others.

I am in no way challenging Objectivism with my argumentation. Rather, I am challenging the idea that Objectivism, or Objectivist principles, are somehow American principles. While they do overlap, they are not the same. The United States has always been about working for the collective good, while protecting individual liberty. You can't split off the former and keep only the latter. Taxation was not a controversial idea to the founding fathers, they all thought it essential to the continuity and efficacy of the government. If you choose to call it theft, so be it. But you would not be in the same intellectual company as the founding fathers of these here United States.

This is why I feel it is a grave mistake for Objectivists to delude themselves into thinking that it is America where Objectivist philosophy will take root. Just because this country is the closest land on earth to the Objectivist ideal does not mean that it is close enough. Objectivist political philosophy is a radical departure from the principles this country was founded upon.