Glad you admit this in public. The founders of America read Locke more than any single political science philosopher. Locke is the DIRECT inspiration for the Declaration of Independence. When you disdain Locke you divorce yourself from Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, George Washington, Lee, Mason, Madison and on and on.
Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven.