“The Founding Fathers were conservatives/Classical Liberals, committed to less government intrusion in our lives,”
You obviously have never studied the economic policies of Washington or Hamilton.
” individual liberty, opposed to the welfare state,”
George Washington personally distributed welfare funds under Virginia’s version of the Elizabethan Poor Law. Washington and Hamilton were huge supporters of Corporate Welfare, getting the federal government to invest in the First Bank of the United States. Madison, who had opposed this, finally realized the desirability of a Central Bank and approved the Second Bank of the United States. Adams signed a law requiring individuals to buy health insurance.
” and supported a noninterventionist foreign policy,”
George Washington couldn’t intervene anywhere because the US didn’t have a Navy. (We paid bribes and tribute instead. But he did authorize a Navy which Adams, Jefferson, and Madison used to intervene.) Adams got us into an undeclared war with France. Jefferson started the First Barbary War. Madison started the War of 1812 and invaded Canada!
” gun rights,”
Washington and Hamilton put down the Whiskey Rebellion and disarmed all the rebels they could find.
“opposed taxes, etc.”
Washington and Hamilton raised an army that was larger than the one they had had at Yorktown to put down the Whiskey Rebellion and maintain their high tax policies — which were due in part to the bailout of nearly bankrupt state governments by the Federal Government.
The truth is, our founding fathers were quite comfortable with intrusive government — as long as it was an intrusive *American* government.