While our new president contemplates the renewed use of enhanced interrogation techniques, we would do well to remember where the discussion of the Law of Land Warfare and torture originated. It was in Washington DC 155 years ago.
It’s easy for Democrats to criticize Trump as a demagogue or his voters as unreasoning dupes. In truth, however, American democracy has never operated primarily on the basis of reasoned debate.
What unfortunately is often missed is the extent to which the love letter provides an enduring expression of Jefferson’s views on issues such as man in society, moral sense, and most importantly, the relationship between the moral sense and reason.
Not since I had to remember and recite “The New Colossus” in elementary school have I seen so many references to Emma Lazarus’s poem on the Statue of Liberty as in the past week.
