OPINION:
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Few lines from our founding inspire more hysteria these days from the bureaucratic tyrants in Washington and their crotch-nuzzling cheerleaders in the media.
When it comes to bloodshed in your neighborhood, CNN calls it “fiery but most peaceful.” When the unrest reaches the neighborhood of tyrants, CNN calls it an “insurrection” and demands the full force of the federal government to quash every last tendril of dissent.
At a minimum, you have to commend the “insurrectionists” for at least hitting the right house for refreshing the tree of liberty. The “fiery but mostly peaceful” riots that roiled your neighborhoods, burned down your churches and looted your stores were pure anarchy — the petty, redheaded stepchild of tyranny. But tyranny nonetheless.
Certainly, watering the tree of liberty with anybody’s blood is a strong message for suburban soccer moms these days. Jefferson was famous for his brass-knuckled commitment to liberty.
“What signify a few lives lost in a century or two?” he wondered in the same letter that he discusses refreshing the Tree of Liberty.
Probably not the most effective bumper sticker to win over those suburban soccer moms.
You can blame the contentment of these moms on the overabundance of fruits from our liberty.
Jefferson called this contentment “lethargy” and warned that it was “the forerunner of death to the public liberty.”
“God forbid,” he remarked, “we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.”
Granted, nobody today wants to see bloodshed in the streets. So, what about a bloodless revolution? Instead of blood flowing in the streets of bureaucratic Washington, what about a sea of pink slips?
As grievously dismayed as Jefferson would be over the state of lethargy and tyranny in our country today, he would also cheer the arrival of pharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy on the political battlefield. Smart, worldly and insatiably curious, Mr. Ramaswamy is about as close as you get to a Renaissance man in our times.
While at his first job out of college working for an investment firm focused on biotech companies, Mr. Ramaswamy got bored. So we went to law school, during which time he earned both a law degree and his first $15 million. He has even dabbled in stand-up comedy.
Jefferson would especially admire that Mr. Ramaswamy accomplished something in the private sector before getting into politics. (All the Founders would be disgusted by the hordes of lifelong government grifters like President Biden.)
But mostly, Jefferson would applaud Mr. Ramaswamy’s approach to the bloated, malignant federal government that has grown so large and powerful that it is ungovernable and entirely unresponsive to the people.
“Do you believe in reform? Or do you believe in revolution?” Mr. Ramaswamy asked in an editorial board meeting with The Washington Times last week.
“I am the candidate — I think the sole candidate — who is actually, unapologetically on the side of revolution. I think that is the only way forward.”
In a Republican primary field dominated by former President Donald Trump, most candidates are tiptoeing around promising to be Mr. Trump without the drama. Or Trump Light. Or Trump without Trump. Trump — minus the mean tweets.
Mr. Ramaswamy is running a different campaign. He is not running to the left of Trump or to the center of Trump — but to the Trump of Trump. If anything, Mr. Ramaswamy is critical of Mr. Trump for not being enough of a disrupter.
Why would you pick a secretary of education, Mr. Ramaswamy asked, for a department you intended to abolish?
As for the somewhat chaotic personality of Mr. Trump, Mr. Ramaswamy says the MAGA movement does not belong to any one man. After all, he said, George Washington was “America First” before anybody else.
He intends to follow in those footsteps.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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