Although Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton may seem remote to modern eyes-- the parties they founded are still fundamentally fighting the same battles they started over 200 years ago.
Here is a question for you. Has partisan politics changed at all in 200 years?
People like to think that the era they live in is the worst that has ever existed. The worst crime. The worst weather. The most inequality. The most godless. The most venal. The most amoral.
The list goes on indefinitely.
The truth is, politics-- by its nature-- requires this angst to survive. Its both fuel and fodder for votes an/or influence, no matter how noble or well-intended the core activism might have been at the start.
In the United States, Thomas Jefferson stands out in legend as the paragon of lofty, idealistic virtues. In reality, he was a particularly venal back-stabber in politics, who took his lofty ideals and virtues so far, that as Vice President to one of his formerly closest friends-- he had virtually no contact for four years.
His partisan rival-- Hamilton-- was no boy scout either. His machinations were so bad, that he ended up getting murdered by a Vice President.
Still think 21st Century American politics are the worst they have ever been?
Didn't think so.
What's more extraordinary in all this is the fact that the root of this venality is still the same tap that fed Jefferson and Hamilton. Jefferson believed in a state-centered, rural and agrarian republic with liberal democracy for landholders and slim taxation. Hamilton believed in a strong Federal government plutocracy, with the power to tax heavily (especially imports) and heavy regulation of trade-- especially trade treaties.
The lesson to be learned here is one that no less than George Washington learned when these two partisans served in his cabinet together. Partisan politics are not conducive to good government. And yet they persist, despite every effort by the majority of our founders to prevent them from ever taking root.
The saddest thing of all about partisan politics however (especially in a two party system) is that at the core of either party is generally a kernel of hypocrisy that tribalism camouflages at every turn. Sexual harassment is bad (except when it was "a long-time ago by one of our candidates."). And-- "Government spending is bad" (except when it is something we want like a war or graft). And so it goes, on and on, while the tribal partisans cannot see their candidate is just as blue, red, purple, well-intended (or venal) as their opponent.
Of course, the two greatest casualties in this angst ridden drama are logic and pragmatism. Partisan politics (like all fundamentalism) breeds best in the miasma of passion not the salubrious air of logic. And impassioned vilification and wholesale disregard for the other partisan side, advances little and retards much.
But not let your heart be troubled. As bad as things seem right now-- no one has been called out on a dual or caned senseless in the senate yet.
But then again-- its only April. We still have six full months to go before the November general election.
Alas-- another good argument for social distancing.
Comments