Are you familiar with Lincoln Day Dinners usually held about this time of year? Well, Democrats have their own version as well:
Jefferson–Jackson Day is the annual fundraising celebration (dinner) held by Democratic Party organizations in the United States.[1] It is named for Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, which the party calls its founders. During presidential election campaigns, key dinners are important venues for candidates to attend.
It is usually held in February or March around the same time as the Republican Party’s equivalent Lincoln Day, Reagan Day, or Lincoln–Reagan Day dinners.
Which is why it struck me as really odd when I recieved this notice in my e-mail box:
Apparently the founder of the Democrat Party brought baked chicken & caprese skewers to the United States.
Nothing against the author of the Declaration of Independence. But if I’m going to a Republican event in April, I’d stick with a Lincoln Day Dinner theme if it was me.
Update:
Ed Randazzo with the Penn Co GOP was quick to disavow the event and note ..” This Jefferson Birthday event is the brain child of Mark Skogerboe. Mark, who calls himself the Freedom Poet, has spent the last year or so impersonating Abe Lincoln at various events and I guess he’s tired of being Abe. The Jefferson event is not sponsored by the Pennington County Republican Party.”
But, I can’t help but wonder why it was kicked to my e-mail by the Pennington County GOP’s list serv, and the message says “Celebrate Thomas Jefferson’s birthday with Mark as ABE LINCOLN And I can “Pay at the door and RSVP to: [email protected]”
At the very least, it might cause someone to make assumptions.
The “Happy Birthday, Thomas Jefferson” event is NOT the Pennington Co. Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner for 2021. The Pennington Co. Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner will be held on September 11, 2021 at the Rapid City Civic Center.
This Jefferson Birthday event is the brain child of Mark Skogerboe. Mark, who calls himself the Freedom Poet, has spent the last year or so impersonating Abe Lincoln at various events and I guess he’s tired of being Abe. The Jefferson event is not sponsored by the Pennington County Republican Party.
Mark is a long time Republican and a member and frequent volunteer at Republican events in several West River Republican events.
Ed, I’ll certainly take your word for it if I’m in error. But if it’s not sponsored by the Penn Co GOP, why is the RSVP to “[email protected]?”
You have to admit, it could cause people to jump to conclusions.
Pat, your read on this is totally understandable and the use of the Pennington Co. GOP email for RSVPs was made by the Chairman as an accommodation to Mr. Skogerboe which, in my view, was unwise.
BTW. Abe’s flyer RSVP email address is incorrect.
Might they just be mocking the libbies, and eating of the foods? I think it is a great idea.
smh.. especially given that Thomas Jefferson was a Democratic Republican, not a Republican Democrat. But that is of interest only to those of us who know the difference between a noun and an adjective. The real story is that the Democratic Republican party fizzled out and it was Martin Van Buren who created the Democratic party. Whatever…
You could probably win a beer in a trivia bet at the bar on that one. I’d have lost
The Democrat-Republican Party was indeed founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. It was widely known simply as the Republican Party for shorthand. It splintered during and especially after the Election of 1824 when one group supported John Quincy Adams and another group supported Andrew Jackson, who later dropped Republican from the name. Van Buren was important in picking up the pieces of the splintered but newly renamed party, but it would not be accurate to call him its founder. The Democrats have ever since often disagreed about whom they should identify as their founder because the Democrat Party’s views were after 1824 very different than Jefferson’s but Jackson had an troubled, to put it mildly, reputation.
I’ve always viewed that the Federalist Party was the modern precursor to the Republican Party of the 21st century and that the Democratic Republican Party of Jefferson was the modern precursor to the Libertarian Party of the 21st century (which has fallen out of favor). I think you can make a strong case that Jackson/Van Buren were the founder of the Democratic Party, as Anne states, but I think you can also argue that the modern Democratic Party was founded by either William Jennings Bryan or Woodrow Wilson, as that is when it first became controlled by what would become the modern left. Until then, although there were factions on both parties, there was not a real party of the left in major US politics.
The Democrat-Republican Party was indeed founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. It was widely known simply as the Republican Party for shorthand. It splintered during and especially after the Election of 1824 when one group supported John Quincy Adams and another group supported Andrew Jackson, who later dropped Republican from the name. Van Buren was important in picking up the pieces of the splintered but newly renamed party, but it would not be accurate to call him its founder. The Democrats have ever since often disagreed about whom they should identify as their founder because the Democrat Party’s views were after 1824 very different than Jefferson’s but Jackson had an troubled, to put it mildly, reputation.
It would be difficult to argue that the Federalist Party was the precursor to today’s Republican Party. The Federalists believed in a strong, relatively for the times, national government. The modern Republican Party grew out of the ashes of the Whig Party, which had actually grown out of the ashes from the split of the Democratic-Republican Party about which I wrote above. To claim that today’s libertarians have a precursor among any of the American Founders would be untenable because the Founders’ definition of liberty was the classical one of the freedom to do what is right. Most of today’s libertarians belief in a definition of liberty that the Founders, using the classical definitions, would have viewed as license, i.e, the freedom to do whatever one wishes even if it is harmful to the person taking the action.
Good analysis and distinction, Anonymous 3:38. I really like your use of license. If I may paraphrase and summarize in my own words: Liberty and Freedom is not license to do bad to others or oneself.
The reason I did as I did above is I think one must always remember the Founding Fathers were focused on “a better way” for the individual to BECOME their better self because they assumed God’s plan should be their plan: God gave us freedom so we would freely come to love Him vs. unfree compliance as done by a slave. To impede that freedom by government would be a presumption they know better than God. Yes, they might have to have rules like in the Old Testament but only as a last resort to protect others.
Would Jefferson recognize the socialist party that is now the Democrat party? I doubt it. Shoot, even JFK wouldn’t recognize the ant-Americanism of the party of which he was a part.
There is progressive in the sense that you are moving forward towards something positive, and there is Progressive-as the Dem party is today-where you are moving towards total government control of your lives and the annihilation of those who don’t bow to their Borg Collective-like cause.
True statement. I’d be happy to welcome Thomas Jefferson or JFK to the GOP.
The notion held by far too many Republicans, which is seemingly based on some romantic view of Camelot, that JFK would be a Republican or a conservative today is completely off base. While Lyndon Johnson made what he called a “war on poverty” his domestic agenda, Kennedy actually used the label a number of times and set the foundation for Johnson’s Great Society.
Kennedy helped convince the members of Congress to:
a) create programs to provide vocational training to retrain unemployed workers and to expand vocational training for underprivileged youth
b) expand Social Security coverage, benefits, and controls
c) raise the minimum wage
d) expand urban renewal and slum clearance projects
e) increase public housing
f) lower tariffs
g) increase federal loans to students
i) create the Peace Corps
Of those things, only the decrease in tariffs would be considered a conservative view today. More importantly
most of the aforementioned programs were not as extensive as Kennedy would have liked because Southern, conservative Democrats opposed them.
Furthermore, Kennedy tried to get the members of Congress to pass even more extensive and liberal legislation that would have created a dramatic increase in federal aid to and greater federal control of education and the creation of a federal medical care program for the elderly. The latter, of course, became Medicare.
Kennedy was not a progressive like the people who control the Democrat Party today and who are actually Marxists of the socialist stripe, but that would hardly make him a conservative today.
Always good to get an update from the Rockfeller Republicans in Sioux Falls.
Placed as a Reply to the incorrect post.
This from the Chair of Pennington County GOP: We have a long march in front of us. Once again, the forces of tyranny are arrayed against us.
The most critical part of their strategy is to erase all vestiges of American history and culture….the speed with which they are accomplishing this is breathtaking…..their goal: To remove history classes from our schools….erase that from our thoughts…..make us more prone to repeating mistakes.
Pennington County Republicans promote events that celebrate our History. The event today honors one of our Founders, Thomas Jefferson. I would rather err on the side of being willing to listen to and learn from the thoughts of our giants.
Very Respectfully,
Jeff Holbrook,
Chair, Pennington County GOP
Thomas Jefferson, author of our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness”…..
Reflect upon those words and compare them to the values we hold as written in the Republican Party Platform. That set of beliefs can be described in two words: Freedom and Liberty for the individual. Now, compare that to dependency on the State which our opponents ascribe to. Take an additional step in reasoning and logic: Jefferson recognized the “Creator” as do we…..compare that to the oppositions disregard to a higher authority.
I authorized the promotion of the celebration of Thomas Jefferson because I believed it was the right thing to do. Furthermore, upon deeper reflection, I now wish that I had sponsored it.
Very Respectfully,
Jeff Holbrook
Chair, Pennington County GOP
484-0969
This event was an astounding review of one of the great founders of the United States of America. Too many adults and students know nothing about our history. I have heard Mark on many occasions reciting the Gettysburg Address as well as giving other facts about Abraham Lincoln. Mark is a historical scholar. Unfortunately, our schools no longer teach American History, but prefer to indoctrinate the students with liberal ideals of sexual perversions, socialist agendas, racial and economic division. I doubt Thomas Jefferson would support either of today’s major political parties . He has scruples, which are sadly lacking in either party. Perhaps the Republican Party needs to really study the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, as well as learn about our Founding Fathers.