Clark and the Enlightenment

One of the main reasions I like Clark is because he has stated how our country's laws are a product of the Enlightenment. He wants to take us back to what we were founded on away from the Religious Right's Christian Nation BS.

The ‘Age of Enlightenment’ is a term used to describe the trends in thought and letters in Europe and the American colonies during the 18th century, prior to the French Revolution of 1789-1799.
Enlightenment meant an emergence from centuries of darkness and ignorance to a new age guided by reason, science and a new respect for humanity. New discoveries in science such as Newton’s law of gravity gave mankind a new way of looking at the world. If mankind could unlock the laws of the universe, God’s own laws the possibilities of reason were thought to be endless. People came to assume that through a judicious use of reason, an unending progress would be possible; progress in knowledge, technical achievement, and even in moral values.

It would be awesome to have someone like Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Washington back in the Whitehouse!

the Enlightenment was to our nation's history.

"The University will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind for here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it." Thomas Jefferson on the founding of the University of Virginia

“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.” Thomas Jefferson advised one of his nephews in the course of a disquisition on religious education.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Didn't Clark say something about the Enlightenment in his first Bill Maher(sp) appearance? I remember I didn't understand and I'm sure I'm not the only one. So thanks for the great explanation. This site is so educational!

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT

September 5, 2003

“REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER”

http://www.safesearching.com/billmaher/print/t_hbo_realtime_090503.htm

MAHER: Right. A lot of the – you know, they all talk about the military. Very few of them served like “hm-hm.” I want to – I want to read you a quote, because I’m not saying whether you’re going to get into this or not, but Howard Dean, who is apparently the front runner now for the Democrats, he said last week, he said, “In Vermont, politics is much further to the left.” He said, “A Vermont centrist is an American liberal.”

And then his campaign manager came out and said, “That’s not an admission he’s a liberal.” Which, quite frankly, pissed me off. Because somehow they hijacked that word, “liberal.”

Now, you’re a Democrat. You said that last week.

CLARK: Absolutely.

MAHER: Okay. I’m just – I’m just wondering, of all the people who has the credentials to say, “liberal” is not a bad word, I’m wondering if I could get you to say that.

CLARK: Well, I’ll say it right now.

MAHER: Good for you.

CLARK: We live in a liberal democracy.

MAHER: Right.

CLARK: That’s what we created in this country. That’s our—

MAHER: That’s right. Thank you.

CLARK: That’s in our Constitution. Let me follow on this, okay? I think we should be very clear on this. You know, this country was founded on the principals of the Enlightenment.

MAHER: Right.

CLARK: It was the idea that people could talk, reason, have dialogue, discuss the issues. It wasn’t founded on the idea that someone would get stuck by a divine inspiration and know everything right from wrong. I mean, people who founded this country had religion, they had strong beliefs, but they believed in reason, in dialogue, in civil discourse. We can’t lose that in this country. We’ve got to get it back.

MAHER: Thank you.

If Clark looses it will be a great loss to this country. Like defeating Thomas Jefferson before he could write the Virginia Bill for Religious Freedom or the Declaration of Independence. People need to wake up and realize we have a once in a lifetime candidate in Clark. His 100 year plan shows the foresight he has much like the founders.

is that he doesn't talk like a general, a politician, or captain of industry. At least not the times I've heard him talk.

He talks like a revolutionary-- someone who is in tune with the founding fathers who invented a new form of government. Someone who understands the basis for our government and society and wants to bring us back to it by bringing us forward.

This nation was forged in blood and idealism, but somehow lost its way over the years. Our future is very much in our past, where once we actually believed in things and acted on them. And didn't just hand out dogma, platitudes, and sound bites, whether religious or political.

As a Quaker, and as someone who has some severe problems with much of the Serbian campaign, I have a real problem actively supporting him.

But, that's my problem and my conscience that I have to deal with. From what I've seen so far, he just may be one of the great hopes for this nation.

And that's pretty much the bottom line.

Your post is one of most intellectually honest posts I've seen on DU.
I admire your integrity.

Rare find and much appreciated.

along with what has been posted so far is great, Clark has a vision that most people taking the time to comprehend just what is being said would find little to disagree with.

This country is so far from what it was meant to be that I have little doubt our founding fathers would fail to recognize it at all.

Getting it back to any point in history to what it was meant to be is a dream, with the right start (Clark) there is a possibility of that happening, without this vision of want, we are destined to go down the same path and what I see as an eventual destruction of all that could be.

Thank you so much for your post and welcome to DU.

It'll truly be a disservice to America to stay the course by electing a President that has no vision other than to remain in the direction we have gotten to today.


And then there were none!
” JAFO”

Clark is definitely the candidate most able to undo the, almost, fait accompli attempt by Team * to take US back to the Dark Ages.