Hamilton’s insights for #NeverTrump Republicans
“Hamilton” is the hottest ticket on Broadway, and rarely has a dead man seemed so alive. The ten-dollar founding father even has insights to share with despondent #NeverTrump Republicans.
In 1801 Hamilton, a big-government Federalist, faced a decision not all that different from one confronting small-government Republicans forced to choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
{mosads}Is it better to support a candidate who opposes your principles, but for whose errors you won’t be held responsible? Or does it make sense to roll the dice on a candidate with murky principles for whose mistakes you’ll be blamed?
Since the election of 1800 resulted in an Electoral College tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, early the following year the task of choosing the winner fell to the lame duck, Federalist-controlled House of Representatives, over which Hamilton had considerable influence. Both Jefferson and Burr seemed likely to undermine Hamilton’s vision for the country. But Hamilton’s party had spent much of the previous decade singling out Jefferson as a radical, irreligious, and dangerously double-faced demagogue. As a result, many Federalists viewed Burr as the lesser of two evils.
Hamilton disagreed.
Although Hamilton viewed Jefferson as a “contemptible hypocrite” who was neither “scrupulous… nor very mindful of truth,” he believed Jefferson’s desire for popularity and influence would cause him to moderate his “erroneous” principles. But Burr, in Hamilton’s view, had no principles at all.
This worried Hamilton most. Burr, a “partisan for gain” with “no fixed theory,” could be counted on only to pursue his own ambition. And Hamilton had no doubt that Burr, even more than Jefferson, was a self-promoting demagogue: “No man has trafficked more than he in the floating passions of the multitude.”
Republicans who see Trump in this characterization of Burr should consider Hamilton’s final warning: If Federalists embraced Burr as the lesser of two evils, they’d be responsible for whatever evils a President Burr might produce. If instead they acquiesced to the election of Jefferson, for whose actions their opponents would be faulted, their party would remain “without stain.”
Even after Trump’s decision to apprentice Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Hamilton’s reasoning should resonate with Republicans wary of Trump. The fight against Big Government is a marathon and not a sprint.
But the desire to avoid muddying their principles needn’t cause them to throw their support behind the ticket of Clinton and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine. Although Hamilton had two choices, in 2016 they have three.
Clinton and Trump promise to undermine free markets and expand executive power. They’ll double down on undeclared wars and warrantless wiretaps while exploiting divisive identity politics. They pledge to oppose Social Security and Medicare reforms needed to slow the federal government’s march toward fiscal disaster.
The decision facing #NeverTrump Republicans is one Hamilton might envy. It’s better to choose among three candidates, including one who mostly shares your views, than between two who do not.
Robert M. S. McDonald is author of Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson’s Image in His Own Time.
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