I hear that the star of John Adams is rising these days. I’m not sure why this would be the case. Is it the desire to see the wisdom of the Patriot Act as being in the grand tradition of the Alien and Sedition Act? (Sort of the way Woodrow Wilson’s star rose when the United Nations Charter was enacted… though in that case, Wilson was risen from the mud — unlike Adams who, if pressed, Americans would nod and say “Founding Father. Good!”) Or is there something in the current American zeitgist that I am missing?

Oddly enough, I read an editorial in the Oregonian yesterday that placed the current president in the same company as John Quincy Adams and FDR. John Quincy Adams, he of “America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy” quotation fame.

(The editorial does deserve a little attention, btw. Maybe I’ll give it some later.)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2004 at 3:12 pm and is filed under History Regurgitates Forward. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.