June 2026
Top Fermentation by Tom Schlafly
As most alert readers (ARs) already know, Washington, Jefferson and Madison, all of whom were from Virginia, were respectively the first, third and fourth presidents of The United States.
As many ARs also know, James Madison, writing in 1787 in Federalist No. 10, strongly criticized political parties, which he called “factions.” Nine years later George Washington repeated Madison’s theme with a vigorous denunciation of political parties in his historic Farewell Address of 1796.
As The United States celebrates its 250th birthday, there are probably some ARs who would agree that the evils of partisanship are even worse today than Washington and Madison could ever have imagined. Even their contemporary Elbridge Gerry (the founding father of the gerrymander) would probably be astonished by the arms race among state legislatures involving the dirty trick he invented over two centuries ago.
Washington and Madison would also almost certainly be disquieted by the amounts of money paid to so-called “influencers” by political parties and others in order to sway voters’ opinions.
I personally encountered a swarm of influencers on my trip to Antarctica run by an organization called Antarctica21. The influencers were all Chinese and had reportedly been given free trips and perhaps more to promote the tour company. They were definitely given favorable treatment to the disadvantage of paying customers like my wife and me. From what I could observe their “influencing” consisted of slowing down the lines in the dining room in order to take videos of themselves commenting on every item in the buffet; blocking the views of others so they could take videos of themselves talking about the scenery; and shooing other passengers out of the way while they took videos of themselves taking selfies with their phones (a process that required wielding two cameras at once.)
More recently I learned about “Biblical eating” promoted by influencers who advocate limiting one’s diet to foods that are specifically mentioned in the Bible. Presumably these influencers would urge their followers to heed the injunction in Deuteronomy 14:26 to “spend your money on whatever you want: cattle, sheep, wine or beer” and to “feast in the presence of the Lord.”
Founding Father of the Gerrymander.
While Washington, Jefferson and Madison had all been baptized in the Church of England, it’s doubtful that they would have scrupulously followed Biblical dietary precepts. They were, however, all aficionados of beer.
Washington operated a brewery at Mount Vernon; and Jefferson operated one at Monticello.
Madison took his support for brewing to an even higher level. In 1809 he proposed the creation of a government-backed national brewery to protect the domestic market. He even advocated for a cabinet-level “Secretary of Beer.” Neither proposal was approved by Congress.
Too bad. Beer refreshed the drafters of The Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia during the sweltering summer of 1776. And a Secretary of Beer today could help unify a deeply divided America a quarter millennium later.
Tom Schlafly
