We used to learn early on in public school that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and later became Third President of the United States.
But if you asked a school kid today, perhaps even a college student, who Jefferson was, you might get, “Dunno, who he?” or “A guy from that Jefferson Airplane musical group.”
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Maybe things are not that bad, but I’m in no mood to find out anytime soon.
I bring up Jefferson because in past posts I’ve had everyone from Neville Chamberlain to the Smoot and Hawley tariff boys haunting the White House to influence Trump to do things that are doomed to backfire, at least in my jaundiced predictions.
So if a ghost wants to float down the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue whispering in Donald Trump’s ear, why not that of Thomas Jefferson?
I bring up Jefferson because he, like Trump, had trouble with federal judges overruling him. Jefferson, however, also had a solution.
He just did away with 13 federal judgeships. There were only 17 states in his time, so that pretty much cut the heart out of the judicial opposition.
Is this possible today? Probably not, although perhaps you could just defund their honors’ districts.
You obviously could never do it through a vote of both Houses, so just take away their allowance.
Where are you, Mr. Jefferson, now that we need you?
Come talk to our current White House occupant. He doesn’t sleep much, so you have plenty of time to influence him.
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