Thomas Jefferson

Tomorrow, February 5, twenty-four states will hold their primary elections in the presidential race of 2008. Dubbed Super Tuesday, this day will help decide which candidates go on to the national election and which will have to abandon their dreams of becoming president of the United States. Different states will hold different types of primary elections, with some states only holding elections for either the Democratic or Republican parties. In Thomas Jefferson’s day, the two major parties were quite similar to our major parties today. And, like our own parties, they disagreed on various issues, but held many views in common.

Jefferson wrote:

“Both of our political parties, at least the honest portion of them, agree conscientiously in the same object, the public good: but they differ essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. One side believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers, the other by a different one. One fears most the ignorance of the people [in Jefferson’s day, this was the Federalist party, and in our own, the Republicans]; the other the selfishness of rulers independent of them [in Jefferson’s day, this was the Democratic-Republican party, and in our own, the Democrats].”

Although Jefferson believed that most of the members of both parties were devoted to doing what was best for the people, he often said that politics was a business that most people would do well to avoid. He wrote:

“Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them.”

Despite the fact that he was a politician himself, Jefferson asserted:

“Political conversations I really dislike, & therefore avoid where I can without affectation.”

We have to wonder how Jefferson would react to today’s political climate, where people from all stations in life talk about politics every day, and where primary elections capture the attention of the entire nation. If Jefferson had lived to see this year’s Super Tuesday, he would no doubt have had a lot of trouble avoiding political conversations.