User:Jazzman831/jefferson

I don't pay much attention to the American History class on Conservapedia, but the answers to the fourth homework assignment caught my eye. This week's lecture covers the topic of Thomas Jefferson, who is "not as successful or important as liberals claim..." because "he failed personally and as president". In his lecture, the section on the Jefferson administration is dedicated almost entirely to the Louisiana Purchase. Andy correctly points out that Jefferson, a strict constructionist, had to go against his own principles, since the purchase of land was unconstitutional. He then has, in bold print: "Debate: Was this "Louisiana Purchase" an improper exercise of power?" The lecture later turns to Jefferson's failure (his words, not mine; I know little about this period of history) in the First Barbary War, then to his failures of enacting trade embargoes on England, then mentions that, despite coming from a wealthy family, Jefferson was in financial ruin when he died.

Now, if we head over to CP's page on liberals, we find that liberals believe in "A 'living Constitution' that is reinterpreted as liberals prefer, rather than how it was intended". Since conservatives are 100% the opposite we can infer that conservatives are strict constructionists.

Now to this week's homework question number 2: "2. If you were the president, would you have approved the Louisiana Purchase? Explain."

Given only the information given in the lecture, there are two correct bare-minimum correct answers to this question:
 * "If I were the President, I would not have approved the Louisiana Purchase, because it was unconstitutional." OR
 * "If I were the President, I would have approved the Louisiana Purchase, even though it was unconstitutional."

Given only the information given in the lecture, and general knowledge of conservatism, there is one bare-minimum correct conservative answer to this question:
 * "If I were the President, I would not have approved the Louisiana Purchase, because it was unconstitutional, and the Constitution is not meant to be interpreted however you like. Also, Jefferson was for the Louisiana Purchase, and Jefferson was a failure."

(Note that these bare-minimum correct answers would probably only recieve 5/10 points for getting the answer right; they make up the other 5 with reasons why the LP was unconstitutional, or reasons why the LP is more important than the Constitution)

So, how many students answered correctly? And how many students answered the good conservative answer? Let's find out:

, and general knowledge about conservative interpretations of the Constitution, the absolute minimum respons for a "good conservative" (no-spin) answer to this question is as follows:
 * "If I were the President, I would not have approved the Louisiana Purchase, because it was unconstitutional."

When trying to figure out "what does the teacher want me to talk about," these additional subjects should all come to mind:
 * Jefferson was a strict constructionist
 * Jefferson had to go against his principles to approve the Louisiana purchase
 * (Bonus) Jefferson made many other mistakes

Analysis

Students who mentioned the Constitution (bare minimum for a correct answer): 3/27 Students who would reject the deal (bare minimum for a conservative answer): 1/27 (note that this one student is being humble; he thinks that the Louisiana Purchase was the right thing to do, but that if he were the President, he wouldn't have had the forsight to make the right decision)

Most common reasons given for ignoring the Constitution in favor of Purchasing the Louisiana Purchase
 * 16: America "needed the land" for foreign relation/power/economic/expansion/population/unstated reasons
 * 8: Keep out neighbors
 * 6: It was good (or some other blanket goodness claim)
 * 7: It was a good deal
 * 2: Didn't actually give reasons why (this counts all others in this list as "reasons")

Leaving aside the fact that none of the students properly supported their answer (and a few didn't even try), the thing that immediately came to my mind is that none of Andy's students gave the good conservative answer, opting instead for the rather unprincipled decision to ignore the Constitution in order to not let a great opportunity be passed by. In fact, only two students even bothered to mention the Constitution, which any reasonable analysis of the question would suggest is the entire reason for even asking the question.

Students 25 and 26 had arguments just like XX and YY, but got fewer points because they didn't hide it as well.

Most students stated reasons, but didn't explain why these reasons were enough, or even, always, why these reasons were good things.

Conclusion

Student 32 clearly sticks out from his peers. Given that he was only assigned a 1-paragraph response (or at least, 1-paragraph responses can get full credit), he is clearly the only one who passed this part of the homework.