> I can tell from your parallel ongoing thread you're having trouble differentiating between the public and private aspects of a politician's life, and how the

> I can tell from your parallel ongoing thread you're having trouble differentiating between the public and private aspects of a politician's life, and how the two can often be at odds. I don't think you're fully comprehending either thread: whether or not the public and private aspects of a politician's life may be at odds isn't the controversy — whether it matters is. The only way to determine that is by comprehensively evaluating the individual based on both the public and private aspects (as well as possible justifications) of a politician's life, weighted by the net impact of each. My argument, across all threads, has been that the net impact of the public writings and deeds of Jefferson (Declaration of Independence proclaiming equality/Enlightenment values, US Constitution that's endured to this day sans slavery, public writings that lent authority to, and legitimized the abolition of slavery) outweigh the negative impacts of his private life, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others. Ditto LBJ. Further, there are several circumstances I've cited that, at the very least, make the justifiability of the private aspects of Jefferson's life (idk about LBJ) plausibly debatable. > I find myself spending way too much time trying to get twenty-something strangers on the internet to acknowledge their confusion. I've not yet succeeded, and I don't think I'll get a win here either. If you've not yet succeeded and haven't been able to "get a win", it could also conceivably be the case that you're wrong, or missing context. All I'm to acknowledge here is that you seem to not think very highly of Jefferson (or LBJ). You're entitled to that opinion, but you also have to acknowledge that it's neither objective nor obvious. I'm also in my 30s, for what it's worth.