That’s easy. Liberals. The entire idea of not having an aristocracy and monarchy was a liberal experiment. But these aren’t the liberal and conservative terms you’re used to today. In their time we’d all be classified as liberals. Unless you want an oppressive aristocracy, then you’d be a conservative. Now we use the term Classical Liberalism to describe them.
I would argue that some modern conservatives very much do want an oppressive aristocracy of some sort, they just don’t really own up to it. They’ve abandoned traditional American thinking for an even older tradition.
I did say that. There are people who admit to wanting to restrict voting rights and enshrine a double standard in law. They are classical conservatives instead of conservative liberals inside classical liberalism. Usually around the Christian nationalist movement.
JD Vance has openly said so. It is their explicit aim.
In broad strokes, you could say they were liberal, but I’d just like to preface this by cautioning not to put too much stock in those terms as a way of viewing the Founding Fathers or the period, especially considering the connotations liberal and conservative have now in terms of policy positions.
That being said, they were largely considered radicals, to varying degrees. John Adams was the most conservative, but even he would have been considered a radical in Britain, itself one of the most liberal polities in Europe at the time. Washington and Madison were also somewhat conservative leaning, but again - they were less conservative than Adams, and we’ve already established Adams as a radical. Benjamin Franklin was the most radical, and seems nearly modern in his views.
In general, you’re looking at a time of such great experimentation that even radicals of the period can appear to have wildly varying views on what ‘direction’ to take going forward that don’t neatly map onto modern left/right liberal/conservative sort of identities.
Do you have a question about something more specific about their positions? Like, economics, centralization of power, religion, foreign affairs…? Or about the policies of other polities of the period?
Benjamin Franklin was the most radical, and seems nearly modern in his views.
Not nearly as much as Thomas Paine.
I was going by the big 7 - Washington, Adams, John Jay, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Franklin - but yeah, Thomas Paine puts any of them to shame, lol.
Ben Franklin was a very accomplished liar. His household owned slaves his entire life, and he only publicly condemned slavery in the last five years of his life. I would hardly call him nearly modern.
He was, however, extraordinarily good at misleading people about his actual life and practice. In that sense, he was excellent at publicizing his highlight reel. He would have made an excellent Facebook boomer. 🤣
He was very intelligent and an incredible politician though. His whole “backwoods” costume during his time in France vs. his high-class sartorial choices in England is particularly amusing to me.
That category could encompass a pretty large set of people depending upon what exactly you mean. You might want to give a list of names.
Washington, Jefferson, Adams perhaps
