Happy birthday, big guy. As George Stephens declared:
John Locke is the intellectual father of our country. While a number of thinkers, stretching from Plato and Aristotle to Blackstone and including Thomas Aquinas, Grotius, Pufendorf, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Hume, and Hobbes made important contributions, this political and social philosopher of 17th century England influenced the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Framers of the Constitution more than any.
Every basic structure in American goverance flows from Locke, especially protection for private property.
