Trump as a Hamiltonian

American Thinker.com ^ | December 20, 2019 | Bill Croke

[Kaslin]

Using the framework of the U.S. Constitution, Alexander Hamilton was instrumental in inventing the America that we live in today. With that liberty providing guidance, he fashioned the nascent American economy and its multifaceted engines from Wall St. to Main St. that interacted with the world of international trade and finance beyond. George Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury’s singular legacy in the realms of the banking system, taxes, tariffs and trade treaties is beyond doubt.

Today, the White House is occupied by a president who seems to be in tune with Hamilton’s vision of economic nationalism. In a never-ending series of tired leftwing clichés -- culminating in the current impeachment orgy -- Donald Trump has been compared to such modern historical monsters as Hitler and Mussolini, when in fact the more apt comparison would be to a fictional character, Ayn Rand’s John Galt, the uber-capitalist protagonist of her novel Atlas Shrugged.

In Rand’s “Objectivist” worldview the individual reigned supreme, as the “collective” stifled human liberty and economic prosperity, and it was only the absence of the state from the machinery of commerce that the individual was able to live a free and meaningful life. Ironically, Rand parted company with Hamilton’s view that a strong central government was necessary to accomplish these ends.

[gleeaikin]

I have read all her novels, and have a detailed critique of her works as well. A very interesting woman, deeply influence by her teen years lived in Russia during and after the 1917 revolution.

[x]

However, as individuals, many of the Founding Fathers were sort of jerks. As far as I know, George Washington was nearly perfect. But Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and others were somewhat nasty people.

Adams was a crotchety old guy. Nasty in that way, but not mean to other folks. Hamilton was a playa, ambitious, scheming, but he'd seen how hard it was to get through the revolution and the chaos that followed and wanted to give the country something solid to build on. Jefferson was something of a narcissist, a great idealist but somebody who was blind to a lot that was going on around him, somebody who lived more in his own head and imagination and ideals. He could make trouble for people around him because his view of the world didn't reflect realities well. But seeing them as they were can give one more appreciation for what they achieved, rather than less.

[SunkenCiv]

He didn't like the tens because he felt he was part of some interfamilial multigenerational feud, I guess. Or nuts. I'm thinkin', the latter. :^) He also had a "Carter for President" bumpersticker. :^o

[SunkenCiv]

Burrsylvania... I remember that one from a childhood episode of "To Tell the Truth", the contestant purported to be a Burr descendant. Interesting detail about the origin of the name of the Andrea Doria, I'd had no idea. If some cruise line tried to pull that now, they'd be 'forced' to change the name to "Victory Mosque" or something.

[colorado tanker]

Hamilton put the United States on a firm foundation to insure that the government established by the new Constitution would actually work.

[SunkenCiv]

well said.

[Red Badger]

incoherent, inchoate animus...............Great name for a heavy metal band!...............

[SunkenCiv]

:^) "Psychosomatic Constipation -- great name for a band." -- Charlie Harper