Good Day citizens and welcome to what would Jefferson do our weekly opportunity to discuss current American events with President Thomas Jefferson who is seated across from me now.

Good day to you, Mr. President.

Good day to you, citizen.

Mr. Jefferson, we've lost a giant in American politics,

a senior senator, a man who ran for the presidency twice, a man who had

outspoken views. He had his supporters and his detractors, but as always he put his country first. He was a war hero. his Yes. Theoretically, his memory will live on if he has done good things for his state and for the country.

And maybe that's the only immortality we get.

There may be buildings named after such a person or ships or other ways of commemorating his legacy.

In my time, we only had one real hero, and that was George Washington, first in war, first in peace, first in the

hearts of his countrymen, as one of my fellow Virginians said of him, but we were pretty concerned in my era about creating a sort of pantheon of gods and

demigods in a republic that's dangerous because theoretically we're all equal and

citizens come out of their private life to serve in public functions for a short time

and then they return with a lacquerity to their more private pursuit of

happiness. So it's a little problematic to aggrandize any single individual too much.

It makes it seem as if our system might depend

upon that person's greatness.

I know we all felt this about Washington.

We knew that he was indispensable, that he must be the first president of the United States.

In fact, we insisted that he serve two terms.

But in doing so, of course, we were in many ways questioning our capacity to go on without him. That's very dangerous in a free society.

I believe government is a few plain duties performed by a few honest men.

But I always had greater respect for veterans than for non-veterans,

...