Thomas Jefferson - Doctor Who in Disguise?

I often get the feeling that Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, must have been a real life Doctor Who, travelling through time as a conglomeration of many different men. How come? Well, surely it must be impossible for so much wisdom to have been condensed into the liberal thoughts of just one man, thoughts which fit as easily into the modern age as they did into the age in which Mr Jefferson allegedly lived.

For instance, here are his thoughts on the BBC:

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical

On the NHS:

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now

New Labour's tenure in government:

I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious

The sanity of Tony Blair:

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others

The current political malaise and voting slump in modern Britain:

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not

The continual re-invention of Madonna's pop career:

Every generation needs a new revolution

On our invasion of Iraq:

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind

Guardian readers:

In every country and every age, the [technocrat] had been hostile to Liberty

Ok, so I hacked that one a bit and changed priest to technocrat. But I've got to have a little fun.


ID cards:

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty

John Prescott:

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct

And of course, Professor Hoppe:

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine

What a man Jefferson was. Or is? I hope he beams down to help us again. His return can't come a moment too soon.