What if the founders weren’t the rebels? In this clip from Part 1 of The Jenny Beth Show’s four-part Constitution training series, Jenny Beth Martin and constitutional scholar Bill Norton walk through John Locke’s argument that the real rebels in any society are the government officials who break the social contract — and why that frame still matters today.
Drawing from Locke’s writings, Bill makes the case that Americans in 1776 were not “anti-government” rebels trying to overthrow legitimate authority. They had been governing themselves successfully for more than a century. It was King George III and Parliament who changed the terms — imposing intolerable acts and new taxes — and Americans simply asked for representation. When the request was rejected, the colonists were defending the rules of the original social contract; the Crown was the one who had departed from them.
Jenny Beth and Bill connect this directly to today. Patriots get accused of being “anti-government” by elected officials and the press. President Obama once called Tea Party patriots terrorists. Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security listed teachers and promoters of the Constitution as potential domestic terrorists. But the lesson from Locke is the opposite: those who twist or ignore the Constitution are the real rebels — and constitutional patriots are 100% pro-government, just pro-limited, pro-constitutional government.
Bill Norton is co-author of “Speaking the Language of Liberty” and has been studying the founders for more than three decades. His new book “Behind the Declaration of Independence” is forthcoming.
Hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party movement and Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.
Learn more at jennybethshow.com and teapartypatriots.org.
00:00 — Were the Founders the Rebels?
01:30 — John Locke on the Real Rebels
03:10 — When Government Officials Break the Contract
05:25 — Why “Anti-Government” Is the Wrong Label
07:00 — Pro-Constitutional, Not Anti-Government
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