“[T]hey contain the true principles of the revolution of 1800. For that was as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of ’76 was in its form, not effected indeed by the sword as that, but by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform: the suffrage of the people. The nation declared its will by dismissing functionaries of one principle, and electing those of another, in the two branches, executive and legislative, submitted to their election.”

—Retired former President Thomas Jefferson, writing to a friend about his election to the office in 1800.

It would be nice, and perhaps even their salvation, if the Democrats would read our history and heed its lessons. Thomas Jefferson believed that democracies had to have periodic revolutions, and came to understand that such upheavals didn’t have to involve violence to be effective. In 1800, the Federalists had lost their way and breached their own principles: John Adams, of all people, had signed a law allowing the President to prosecute political dissidents. President Adams did: his main targets were anti-Federalist newspaper editors, accusing them of trying to provoke an insurrection.

Jefferson was horrified, and so was much of the public. “A legislature had [passed] the Sedition law; the federal courts had subjected certain individuals to its penalties of fine and imprisonment. On coming into office I released these individuals by the power of pardon committed to Executive discretion, which could never be more properly exercised than where citizens were suffering without the authority of law, or, which was equivalent, under a law unauthorised by the constitution, & therefore null,” he wrote in the same letter.

This is all sounding familiar….

The Federalists, certain that Adams had no chance, nominated an alternative candidate. The campaign of 1800 became one of the ugliest in American history. The desperate Federalists had ministers declaring that electing Jefferson, running under the banner of the Republican-Democrats, was the equivalent of rejecting God, that he was an agent of Satan, and that American society would descend into immoral rot if he were elected. Jefferson only prevailed in a deadlocked House of Representatives because a disaffected Federalist star, Alexander Hamilton, supported his longtime political foe after he concluded that the alternative would be disastrous.

No, I did not have Bobby Kennedy Jr. morphing into Alexander Hamilton on my Bingo card. Maybe Kamala Harris will challenge him to a duel. She owns a gum you know…

As President, Jefferson set about undoing almost everything the Federalists had done. He reduced the size of government, cut spending dramatically, and asserted that the states should have domain over much of what the Federalists had sought to control. The Federalists furiously opposed and attacked him, only succeeding in further estranging the party from the American public. The people honored and respected Jefferson because he kept his promise about using the power of the Presidency to advance individual liberty and state autonomy.

The Federalists never won another Presidential election.

Whoa…I’m having an attack of deja vu..

The Jefferson quote, which I literally stumbled over today, prompted me to think about how many “revolutions” Tom would think we have gone through so far. 1776, of course, and by Jefferson’s analysis, and he should know, 1800. Jackson’s Presidency, 1829-1837, has been ranked as a populist revolution since Andy was alive. Lincoln’s Civil War remade the United States as a single nation rather than a federation of independent states (Jefferson’s concept): that makes four revolutions in our first century.

In our second century, only FDR’s massive overhaul of the federal structure to cope with the Depression qualifies as revolutionary. Historians will quibble over whether LBJ’s Great Society was a separate revolution or just the second stage of FDR’s rocket: I’m inclined to give President Johnson the credit (or blame). That makes a total of six “revolutions.”

In our third century, half-way through, we have mostly experienced failed revolutions and attempted revolutions. Jimmy Carter sought to diminish the Presidency and was a failure. Though it was called “The Reagan Revolution,” Ronnie’s Presidency was more of a restoration job, a very successful one.

The Obama/”resistance”/Biden sequence will be seen, I think, as an attempted leftist revolution that fell flat on its metaphorical face, leading to what we are experiencing now. This is very close to what Jefferson described as happening under his guidance after the election of 1800. Voters have reasserted traditional American values and beliefs about the proper limits of government. The Democrats are, astoundingly, acting like the doomed Federalists, making it conceivable that Trump’s 2024 election will be an “extinction level event” for that party.

It is early yet, and chaos is always just a mistake, miscalculation, or unlucky break away. I am pretty sure, however, that Thomas Jefferson, the original founder of what became the Democratic Party, would be very pleased with Trump’s revolution.