Cooch and George Washington — Separated at Birth?

The Tea Partiers actually seem to believe that they are the reincarnation of the Founding Fathers, fighting a second American Revolution against government tyranny.  Here’s Ken Cuccinelli playing to that delusion in a recent letter to supporters:

Our founding fathers took the brave and courageous step of standing up to Great Britain.  The values our founders risked their lives for then are still relevant today. […]  [H]ere in Virginia and across the country, Constitution-minded citizens and elected officials are struggling to push back against Washington’s astonishing encroachments upon our constitutional system of government.

This from the same man who is using his power as attorney general to ban climate research at the University of Virginia, to ensure that discrimination against gay people is enshrined as government policy, and to prevent poor woman from having access to health services that could save their lives and futures.  The same man who champions the liberty of Massey Energy to pollute our streams and neglect the lives of their employees, the independence of the Koch brothers to foment lies about climate change to protect their business interests, the freedom of homophobes to block gay people from basic access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But wait, there’s more!  

Of the modern day fight for freedom, Cooch writes:

Virginia’s principled fights against the unconstitutional healthcare bill and the illegal greenhouse gas endangerment finding are just two of many such examples.

So let’s consider the examples of what Cooch considers tyranny comparable to that of King George the Third.  First, as part of a bill to extend healthcare to those who can’t afford it — a bill publicly debated for a year by duly elected representatives of the American people — the government required all people to have healthcare coverage, so that nobody gets socked with a $30k-100k bill that will leave them bankrupt.

Second, based on the dedictaed field work of thousands of scientists over decades, the US EPA determined that climate change is a threat to human health.

Ready to get your musket yet?

I will finally note a most curious edit that Cooch made to the most famous words of the Declaration of Independence.  The Founders, he says:

saw the founding principles of Life, Liberty and Property as the bedrocks of a proper governmental system.

The British philosopher John Locke had indeed spoken of “life, liberty and property” but Thomas Jefferson of course changed that formulation to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.  Historians have engaged in much speculation over why Jefferson made this change. My personal explanation is that Jefferson was a Kenyan-born socialist seeking to undermine our capitalist system. (Have you ever actually seen his birth certificate?)

Regardless, if Cooch is claiming to venerate the Founders, is it really his place to change their words and meanings?

Look, if Cooch wants to spend his spare time dressing up in powdered wig and tights to imitate George Washington, go for it — not that there’s anything wrong with that!  But please don’t use my tax dollars and government to destroy my liberties in the name of protecting them. Or we may have to launch our own little revolution against Mr. Cuccinelli’s tyrannies. And expose his phony effort to wrap himself in the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag for the fraud that it is.