Lynne Cheyney on How the Founders Would React to the Recent Presidential Debate, “It Would Have Appalled Them…the Public Insults and the Lack of Getting to the Points That People Really Care about in Their Everyday Lives. They Wouldn’t Like That at All.”
In an interview with WKXL’s Chris Ryan, Lynne Cheyney discusses her latest book, “The Virginia Dynasty—Four Presidents and the Creation of the American Nation.” Lynne Cheyney has authored a dozen books, including several best sellers. This book deals with the intriguing relationships between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. These “Founding Fathers” had a great deal in common but also had fierce disagreements. Washington’s concept of the Presidency was at odds with his Virginian contemporaries who formed our first political party, the Democratic Republicans. Washington, Adams, and Hamilton formed the Federalist Party.
The newspapers of the period were owned or controlled by these political leaders and provided an outlet to attack their opponents. A comparison to modern media is discussed.
Lynne Cheyney discusses how all four of these presidents were slave owners but spoke out against slavery. Keeping others in bondage was contrary to the ideals of equality which they espoused. Rather than calling them hypocrites, Cheyney says, “They lived in contradiction, is the way I think of it, unable to escape from a lifestyle, a way of organizing society that was a moral offense, and yet building the framework of a society that would be better.”
As statues are toppled in various parts of the country, Lynne Cheyney believes that George Washington and the other founders should be treated differently than Confederate Generals who betrayed their country. There would be no United States or Constitution without George Washington.
Lynne Cheyney also weighed in on our current political environment, “The Debate… it would have appalled them…the public insults and the lack of getting to the points that people really care about in their everyday lives. They wouldn’t like that at all.”
