Each month, a group of conservative and libertarian activists meets in Richmond to discuss current affairs under the auspices of Tertium Quids, a Virginia think tank and advocacy group.
The Tuesday Morning Group Coalition, as it is known, is hosted by John Taylor, president of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, based in Gainesville at the crossroads of Interstate 66 and Route 29, on the path between Washington and Charlottesville.
The latest meeting of the Tuesday Morning Group took place on April 13, the birthday of Thomas Jefferson. The Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner asked Taylor what his thoughts were on this occasion.
He said he had “mixed thoughts. I think back on Jefferson and the people who were around him back in those days, and I think of them with such fondness. As I get older, I have even more respect for what they put into place and what they tried to achieve.”
Continuing, Taylor said, “On the downside, I see how far we have moved away from what they were trying to put in place and what they were trying to achieve, and it is with some sadness that we gave that up for what we have today, which is just a mess.”
Asked what today’s political leaders could learn from Jefferson and the other Founders, Taylor replied:
“The first thing they’d have to learn is how to read, because I don’t think they have a clue as to what the Founders stood for. Some of them would be horrified if they ever found out.”
Taylor related that, while traveling to Richmond on Tuesday, he “was listening to the radio and I heard someone ask a congressman at a town hall meeting if he could articulate what was in the First Amendment of the Constitution, and he could not.”
Grimacing and shaking his head, Taylor went on to say that, to Members of Congress, the Constitution “is just probably another irrelevant document. If they could vote on health care [legislation] without having read [the bill], why couldn’t they serve in public office without any knowledge of the Constitution?”
Virginia is suing the federal government to have the health care law overturned as unconstitutional. Taylor replied to a question about the prospects of the lawsuit in this way:
“I think it’s a showdown. I don’t know that we can be successful, given the forces arrayed against us, but it’s still a fight that needs to be fought. I like what [Virginia Attorney General Ken] Cuccinelli has done there, and I hope that other states continue to file similar lawsuits because if it accomplishes nothing else, it’s going to focus attention on the fact that the federal government is unconcerned with what the grassroots want, and that they’re going off and essentially just leaving us. Our only role is to pick up their tab.”
Taylor concluded the interview with a greeting to the third president:
“Happy Birthday, Tom. We still remember you.”
For more information about the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, visit the organization’s web site. For more information about Tertium Quids, check out the group’s blog.
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