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Roger Hodge has an essay at Politico this morning urging liberals to reclaim the Founding Fathers. He points to the arguments between Madison and Hamilton during the early years of the newly constituted federal government as providing plenty of material for liberals to launch the kind of principled populism that is entirely consistent with some of the concerns Madison and Jefferson voiced about the concentration of moneyed interests and their ability to affect the government.
Just the other day, over coffee, a friend suggested that the problem with liberals today is that they stopped reading John Locke. As a Catholic, I have never been such a huge fan of Mr. Locke - LOL! But, he was on to something, something that I have been saying for a long time afflicts the Democrats and the left more generally: They have become incapable of articulating a morally persuasive vision to frame their policies. Conversely, Republicans repeat lies about trickle down economics and everyone begins to believe them. They may be wrong, but they are consistent and coherent. The Dems should take a lesson from the GOP - as well as from Mr. Madison.
