RSSInterview With J.J. Jackson – Author of “Here Hangs Lady Liberty” Part 1
RonniesRayGun | January 9, 2010
On 10/29/2009 Mr. Jackson, owner of American Conservative Daily, published his first pamphlet entitled, “Here Hangs Lady Liberty,” which was a critical deconstruction of the lies often told about the General Welfare Clause of our Constitution by the political left. It has since become one of the most viewed postings on this site and because of the amount of email we have received about the pamphlet I thought that it would be enjoyable to once again sit down with Mr. Jackson and talk to him about this fascinating document and other topics.
This is part one of that interview. I have listened to the tape a couple times and I think that I have gotten the transcription right. It is however possible that I have not done so and may have made a few mistakes in putting Mr. Jackson’s answers on to paper. I will correct any problems I find later on.
RRG: Thank you for taking time to talk with me today.
J.J. Jackson: No problem Ron. Always good to talk to you.
RRG: Tell me a little about what the genesis behind “Here Hangs Lady Liberty” was.
J.J. Jackson: The entire project was conceived a little over a year ago but it really came to fruition on September 12th of this year as I watched coverage of over a million Americans marching on Washington to protest the oppressive and unconstitutional government that we currently have attempting to control us. Everything just started popping out of my head on that day and I finally couldn’t put off any longer writing a scathing review of the lies that have been told and that many have bought into over the decades while the politicians sit in Washington with their boot heals on our throats and sending our fellow citizens out to confront us Americans that just want to be left alone under Constitutional and limited governance.
RRG: Much of the twenty some pages is basically a historical look at the General Welfare Clause which is absolutely fascinating. Later on you do get into exposing exactly how much unconstitutional government we have and call for its end but for pages upon pages at the beginning you throw the words of the founding fathers right in the face of those that have distorted the Constitution. Was that the plan?
J.J. Jackson: Absolutely. I felt the need to set a strong foundation and I spared little space citing chapter and verse the exact words of leading founding fathers and pulling long paragraphs from their writings to avoid any chance that they would be claimed to be out of context and to make sure that my later opinions could be backed up so strongly that if anyone disagreed with my attack on the unconstitutional social welfare system built by the political left that such rebuttal would be shown to be unsubstantiated.
RRG: I know that you have often said to me that when you write you also learn. Was there anything that you learned while writing this pamphlet?
J.J. Jackson: The biggest thing I learned was that Alexander Hamilton has been so maligned and his opinions misrepresented over the years that it was scary. I always kind of knew, like in the back of my mind, that Hamilton was not the modern progressive liberal many had painted him as but I had never really researched the topic much on my own.
When I started this project I really had the intention of showing how Hamilton was a lone wolf on his view and that the other founders greatly disagreed with him. But as I wrote and researched I found that Hamilton was not that much different than others whom he worked with. After all he was a huge champion of the Constitution, heading up the project that was the Federalist Papers and Madison and Jay joined with him. Knowing what I do about Madison, I know that it would be highly unlikely that he would work with Hamilton if Hamilton were some big government loon.
In fact I think that I learned that at times Hamilton was much more intelligent that Thomas Jefferson on certain issues and his arguments much more lucid.
RRG: Wow. That is a pretty strong statement considering how much I know you respect Jefferson.
J.J. Jackson: Ron, all the founding fathers had their little quirks. Some of them had big quirks too. None of them were perfect nor right all the time and I have often said that. I do respect Jefferson, but I also see him as extremely and overly paranoid. Sometimes paranoia is good because it keeps us asking questions. But Jefferson, I do believe, sometimes was far too much so and that if we did everything from some of the stances that he took on the Constitution, which often required him to ignored the necessary and proper clause and thus the Constitution itself, this nation would collapse into a dysfunctional heap. Let’s not forget, as I pointed out in the pamphlet too that Jefferson was not above violating the Constitution either. A certain segment of Americans have nearly deified Jefferson as the great hope and candle that guides America. That same segment has also vilified Hamilton because only by doing that can they put Jefferson on the pedestal they worship at.
RRG: When you say a “certain segment of Americans” you mean … ?
J.J. Jackson: I mean the extreme libertarians who are so close to anarchists that true libertarians who understand the need for not just limited government but a limited government that can actual function won’t even associate with them. Unfortunately even many true libertarians have, it seems, also bought into the demonization of Hamilton by their radical, near anarchistic, brethren. And it all stems from one single item I believe. These extreme anarcho-libertarians so dislike the idea of a central bank that they have pulled out all the stops against Hamilton to crucify him because he was the point man for making the argument for such a system.
RRG: It is kind of odd to hear you say that. I know you are not a big fan of the Federal Reserve.
J.J. Jackson: I am not saying that the central bank we have today, the Federal Reserve, or even the bank that Hamilton envisioned was a good central bank system; only that Hamilton’s arguments in favor of some system were sound and kept well to the purpose of the Constitution and the powers we the people granted to our federal government. In fact when you look at the debate on that topic he crushed Jefferson unless you are a diehard Jefferson fan who believes the man never uttered or supported a wrong thing. And I mean Hamilton absolutely annihilated him. Hamilton’s points were more salient. Not that every time he spoke he was right about what he said, but as a whole he had the more solid ground to stand on. Jefferson had a few good arguments too, the best of such was that a central bank could be used to manipulate the people and distort the value of currency away from free market forces. But that isn’t good enough. That’s merely an argument against a central bank that is too powerful and not against central banks as a whole. It is akin to saying that because I am worried that because of some fluke my gun will explode and kill me if I try to fire it that I am not going to try and shoot the man breaking into my house and trying to steal my property. I cannot be so paranoid that it paralyzes me, see?
When you read what Hamilton actually said about the limited powers of the Constitution, not what the extreme and uninformed libertarian and near anarchists claim he said, you get a whole new understanding of what he was saying. The number of emails I have gotten from people that read the pamphlet containing Hamilton’s true words and wrote me telling me that I had educated them and taught them things they did not know was been staggering.
RRG: I am sure that the emails condemning you have been equally great?
J.J. Jackson: Oh, and some of the worst have been from these extreme and unintelligent libertarians who simply cannot accept the actual words of Hamilton. I have been accused of making those quotes up, of being a liberal in disguise trying to dupe the American public and worse by this set. But every word I quote I cite and give a reference to. These fringe radicals have built their entire political ideology upon a lie and like many on the left who have done the same the truth burns them to the core and they feel the need to lash out at the person exposing the lies they have held on to rather than accepting the truth and re-evaluating themselves.
RRG: I think it is funny to hear that you are being accused of being a liberal by people. You spend pages in your pamphlet excoriating liberal social programs and defending the need for limited government.
J.J. Jackson: Ron, it is like I always say about the extreme left; even a socialist appear conservative to a communist. Same thing for those who are on the opposite side. To the extreme libertarian, near anarchist right, even a sensible and constitutionalist libertarian seems liberal.
The answer as to why I get called a liberal by those types is simple. These people do not think for themselves. They have been told something and told that something in order to rally them against a singular item that is a pillar of their belief system and they are worried that if it is not true everything they believe in will collapse. But the truth is that that does not happen. Libertarianism is a strong and good ideology, perhaps the most perfect when practiced correctly and with reason. But you have this small sect of libertarians who, I believe, think themselves as the keeper of the light of libertarianism and woe be to you if you confront them. Even if you have the facts. You know, these are the same libertarians that think it is wrong for a pregnant woman to give up her body to host a child in her womb regardless of how it happened but have no qualms about murdering that child to make such a result true. They boggle the mind to even talk to.
So many of them that have written me think that I am defending the Federal Reserve. But no where did I ever say that. Nowhere. All I said was that Hamilton was right in that if government has the authority to coin money and since it is given the authority to do what is necessary and proper to accomplish this task that it is reasonable to say that they need a way to get that money into circulation. You have to have a distribution point to do that. Call it whatever you want but that is basically a bank. If it makes them feel better I’ll call it a Froodlegrak … but it will still be a bank.
Those that excoriate me and Hamilton for that logic are as goofy as modern liberals who also hated the piece.
RRG: I can only imagine the sort of comments you got from the political left that have read it.
J.J. Jackson: Oh yes. You know, it is the standard fare when it comes to accusations. I want people to starve and die in the streets. I want people to not be able to get treatment for injuries and illnesses. I have no compassion for the poor. Yadda yadda yadda. As if somehow saying that family and friends should take care of people and not big government in Washington is akin to such nonsense.
RRG: Leaving aside the ramblings of people that want to take you out of context and want to make up things that you certainly do not believe in …
J.J. Jackson: If I may. You cannot ignore these people Ron, they exist. And they are so intellectually vacant that they must be confronted. Mostly because they seem to be steering the horse hauling this cart around and have us pointed right at a cliff.
Update January 31st, 2010: The second part of this transcript is now available.
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