Great post at Kerry 2008 Blog....

Here are some highlights, but read the entire post. It is good. Deserves some positive comments.





http://kerryforpresident2008.blogspot.com/2006/05/senator-kerry-mistakenly-attributes.html

I've had it above my desk at work for about a year now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E15LG8/102-5408262-1200133?v=glance&n=15684181

and this

http://www.cafepress.com/turn_left.29617756

and this

http://mindprod.com/politics/patriotism.html

etc...

Kerry fell for a common misquotation. He's actually used it a long time - I think I remember it from the 60s (RFK??)- also attributed to Jefferson. So, he takes it out and replaces it with one of the many statements of that era saying similar things. This is really no big deal.

It's a great quote even if Jefferson didn't say it. The person who said it deserves a lot of credit. (How many people in speeches talk of the Cherry tree that Washington DID NOT chop down?)

said, OR liked to.

Most importantly, since it was clearly NOT mis-quoted maliciously, and since the quote worked well within the speech...let's give JK credit for choosing good quotes...AND just see that in JK's '08 campaign, he hires a "quote checker." Simple enough done.

and it was consistent with Jefferson's real comments. The quote also stands on its own.

It seems nobody really knows who said it. JK used it and had to attribute it to someone, so why not go with the person to whom it's commonly attributed. If he hadn't made the attribution, they'd accuse him of trying to pass it off as his own.


These are fun to search:

http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/texts/

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/ (Good luck reading these!)

so I just Googled "Origins of "dissent is the highest form of patriotism"" and John Kerry's name is mentioned almost as much as Jefferson's. (Not as the originator of the quote, but as the quoter of the quote.) Most of the sites appear to be negative as far as JK is concerned, but because his name has now been tied-in with the quote so often, in 20 years the quote will probably be attributed to Senator Kerry. I still don't know who said it originally.

It seems that some close variation of the quote has been used by Wm Fulbright, Howard Zinn, Wes Clark, Alan Colmes, Tony Randall (yes, the actor) and probably dozens of others, but the most common argument for those who dispute the Jefferson quote is, I think, Zinn, which would also have been incorrect if Fulbright used it first.

Actually, Jefferson said something very similar, I think, although it is a little wordy:

"The man who loves his country on its own account, and not merely for its trappings of interest or power, can never be divorced from it, can never refuse to come forward when he finds that she is engaged in dangers which he has the means of warding off."
Thomas Jefferson

Closer, though, is Teddy Roosevelt's:

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
Theodore Roosevelt

The quote may not be Jefferson's, but that does not negate the truth inherent in the words.
Dissent IS the highest form of patriotism.

You can quote me.

I agree that it really doesn't matter who said it - the quote is a good quote.

Maybe this will just give it more publicity. Kerry's last several speeches have been so far beyond normal political speech that any notice given them is fine.