The Week on WalesHome.org: Does it matter whether Thomas Jefferson was Welsh?
Bubble — By WalesHome on July 5, 2010 9:14 am
Is it 'cos I is Welsh?
AMERICANS celebrate the 4th of July with firecrackers. We mark it by appropriating the Founding Fathers. The list of signatories to the Declaration of Independence supposedly of Welsh descent has been repeated so often that nobody disputes it any more. Yet in a number of cases, the actual Welsh influences are negligible. Thomas Jefferson is the most famous, yet his Welsh lineage (though self-declared) is unproven, in contrast to his Anglo-Scottish roots. But even if we had affirmation of the great man’s claim, would it make any difference? Jefferson’s formative background was surely that of an educated man, an endowment that enabled him to formulate his thinking on the nature of government and popular sovereignty. Nurture, not nature, made Jefferson.
The urge to plonk Wales into the middle of a story of wider interest is by no means limited to historical claims. The coalition government’s plans to hold a referendum on changing the Westminster voting system on the same day as the next Assembly elections prompted howls of indignation last week, as well as the usual accusations of insulting our fledgling democracy (we talked about it here). But this is an issue of interest to voters far beyond Wales’s borders, as well as within them, and with ramifications beyond any individual set of elections. Wales is a small place and will remain so under any constitutional arrangement short of agressive military expansion. That does not mean that Welsh interests should be ignored or trampled, but it does mean that there will be times when they won’t be centre stage. A referendum on voting reform on the same day as the Welsh general election is very far from ideal, but it is hardly the end of devolution as we know it.
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Tags: constitutional reform, referendum
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7 Comments
Plus if you listen to the Tea Party Right Wing-nuts, it might be better for Wales If Jefferson just flew under the radar for the rest of this century.
In their revisionist zeal, they claim Jefferson, by attempting to separate church and state, was misunderestimated (a ‘W’ Bush holdover term) and he has single-handedly become a symbol of uniform right wing hate screed. If it was not for Thomas Jefferson (insert your crazy theory here)…
They insist the USA is a “Christian” nation and merely place their fingers in their ears and sing loudly to avoid ever having to listen to anyone with a differing point of view.
My country ’tis of thee…??? Sigh…
“The coalition government’s plans to hold a referendum on changing the Westminster voting system on the same day as the next Assembly elections prompted howls of indignation last week, as well as the usual accusations of insulting our fledgling democracy (we talked about it here). But this is an issue of interest to voters far beyond Wales’s borders, as well as within them, and with ramifications beyond any individual set of elections. Wales is a small place and will remain so under any constitutional arrangement short of agressive military expansion. That does not mean that Welsh interests should be ignored or trampled, but it does mean that there will be times when they won’t be centre stage. A referendum on voting reform on the same day as the Welsh general election is very far from ideal, but it is hardly the end of devolution as we know it.”
Odd paragraph with no connection to Jefferson at all and apart from betraying a slightly sadly subservient Unionist mindset it actually ignores all the good practical democratic arguments why we shouldn’t have votes on the same day; it’s not just about protecting the integrity of the Assembly elections it’s about protecting the integrity of the AV referendum as comments on the Staggering from One Vote to the Next thread ilustrate well.
Err, there is a link Ben – it’s described in the opening of the second paragraph.
And I don’t think the piece “ignores all the good practical arguments”. In fact, it explicitly acknowledges that putting both votes on the same day is very far from ideal.
Perhaps a little less time looking for “unionist” attitudes and a bit more on reading through the article is indicated.
Best.
Adam
“Plus if you listen to the Tea Party Right Wing-nuts, it might be better for Wales If Jefferson just flew under the radar for the rest of this century.”
Oddly enough Denis I have never heard anything about separation of church and state from the Tea Party. They are strictly small (or anti federal) government.
Which might make them slightly “Jeffersonian” in tone.
Adam
you are right the argument (that the votes shouldn’t be held on the same day) is acknowledged but then dismissed so quickly that it could hardly have been said to have been considered and from the contents of the piece have certainly been discounted.
Given that the rest of the paragraph essentially says Wales is small and not very important in the wider (ie UK) scheme of things and that we shouldn’t get too upset if the integrity of Assembly elections is undermined in the service of a greater good, perceiving a unionist mindset hardly seems unreasonable.
The fact that a clash is easily avoided to the good of both votes makes this position even odder
Ben
If the article said what you claim it did, you might have a point. But since it doesn’t, you don’t.
What ever the truth of Thomas Jefferson’s Welsh ancestry, except he mentions it himself. Possibly an opportunity for the BBC to produce a show! “In Search of Thomas Jefferson in Wales”? Well, I wont hold my breath.
However it was odd that Jefferson instructed Meriwether Lewis to look out for the “Welch Indians” as recorded in the journals of Lewis and Clark.