{"id":14660,"date":"2016-11-22T19:12:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T19:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=14660"},"modified":"2016-11-22T19:20:07","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T19:20:07","slug":"the-irony-everyones-missing-in-the-hamilton-pence-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2016\/11\/22\/the-irony-everyones-missing-in-the-hamilton-pence-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Irony Everyone\u2019s Missing in the Hamilton-Pence Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

The Irony Everyone\u2019s Missing in the Hamilton-Pence Controversy<\/h2>\n

Four days after Mike Pence was <\/span>lectured<\/span><\/a> by the cast of the hit musical <\/span>Hamilton<\/span> and booed by its audience, the controversy rages on. President-elect Trump sent out the expected angry <\/span>tweet<\/span><\/a> demanding an apology. The left melodramatically gasped, \u201cfreedom of speech,\u201d even though no one has suggested government action against the actors. And, suddenly, the right is more offended than an SJW at an Ann Coulter lecture. Even Trump whined about the theater being a \u201csafe space.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The only person who doesn\u2019t have a strong opinion on this is Mike Pence. He <\/span>handled<\/span><\/a> the situation with uncommon grace, shrugging off the boos from the crowd with a line for the ages: \u201cThat is what freedom sounds like.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

All of this pales in comparison to the supreme irony everyone is missing in this whole overblown controversy. Here we have the cast of a musical that holds Alexander Hamilton in an admiring light expressing deep anxiety about a president who just won a stunning upset victory after running his campaign largely based on the political ideas of \u2013 wait for it \u2013 Alexander Hamilton. <\/span><\/p>\n

Is Trump “Literally” Hitler?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The left likes to characterize Trump as the new Hitler. And while references to the dictator are never absent from political hyperbole, one can\u2019t help but wonder if there isn\u2019t a bit more legitimacy to them when it comes to The Donald. Even the creator of Godwin\u2019s <\/span>law<\/span><\/a> won\u2019t <\/span>dismiss<\/span><\/a> the comparison out of hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

American conservatism was always about creating an American version of the mercantilist British Empire and it really never changed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Superficially, there is something there. Trump appeals to the same kind of nationalist worldview that inspired Hitler\u2019s supporters. Trump\u2019s campaign slogan, \u201cMake America Great Again,\u201d isn\u2019t substantively different from Hitler\u2019s. Neither are his arguments for what has caused the decline: corrupt politicians who have sold out the nation, the presence of subversive or merely unwanted elements (Jews and communists for Hitler; illegal immigrants and Muslim refugees for Trump), and inept economic policy, meaning not enough, or the wrong kind, of state intervention.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Hitler, Trump touts himself as the only hope to save his country, a strongman-type leader who will run a command economy, rid the country of subversive elements, and restore lost international respect. His disdain for civil liberties like <\/span>free speech<\/span><\/a> and open <\/span>support<\/span><\/a> of torture are an even more chilling similarity. For Trump, government isn\u2019t the problem, it\u2019s the solution, as long as the right leader is running it.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for all the similarities, there are important differences. Despite the implication of <\/span>Hamilton<\/span> star Brandon Victor Dixon\u2019s comments, Trump certainly can\u2019t be accused of sharing Hitler\u2019s racial beliefs. Trump\u2019s wall to keep out illegal immigrants from Mexico will have a yuuuuge door in the middle to admit <\/span>legal<\/span> immigrants of the same ethnicity. He has repeatedly voiced his admiration and respect for the Chinese, because \u201cyou can still respect someone who\u2019s knocking the hell out of you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Most striking is Trump\u2019s foreign policy differences with the F\u00fchrer. While Trump does advocate some sort of military action against ISIS, he\u2019s strikingly <\/span>noninterventionist<\/span><\/a> in general. His willingness to admit the Iraq War was a mistake and his general view that America should start questioning its ongoing military posture everywhere, including NATO, are the opposite of the military aggressiveness integral to Hitler\u2019s plan from the beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump’s High Federalism<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what do you call Trump\u2019s brand of nationalism, if not outright fascism? If you take away the boorishness of Trump\u2019s personality and insert more thoughtful, elegant rhetoric, you\u2019d call it traditional American conservatism, before it was infiltrated by more libertarian ideas. American conservatism was always about creating an American version of the mercantilist British Empire and it really never changed. Its founding champion was Alexander Hamilton, who told his fellow delegates at the Constitutional Convention America should imitate Great Britain as closely as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s plan has all the hallmarks of the infrastructure boondoggles that lost election after election for the Federalists and Whigs in the 19th\u00a0century.<\/span><\/p>\n

From the moment he became the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton argued for a strong central government that subsidized domestic corporations to build roads and infrastructure, levied high protectionist tariffs, and ran a central bank. This was the Federalist platform for the party\u2019s entire existence. Once the Federalist Party died, Henry Clay and the Whigs adopted it. From the ashes of the Whigs emerged Lincoln and the Republicans, who were finally able to install Clay\u2019s \u201cAmerican System\u201d after decades of electoral failure.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Republican Party has remained startlingly consistent in its economic principles, despite incorporating free market rhetoric in the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century. Republicans from Lincoln to McKinley to Coolidge to George W. Bush have been protectionists. Hoover reacted to the Depression by signing the Smoot-Hawley tariff, for all the same reasons Trump threatens tariffs now. And what was the first thing Republicans did in the 1950s, after two decades electoral exile? A huge government roads project that had Hamilton smiling in his grave. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trump promises more of the same, justifying his stance against international nation-building by saying, \u201cI just think we have to rebuild our country.\u201d And despite a white <\/span>paper<\/span><\/a> arguing for a partially-privatized road system, Trump\u2019s plan will require $167 billion in government funds and has all the hallmarks of the infrastructure boondoggles that lost election after election for the Federalists and Whigs in the 19<\/span>th<\/span> century.<\/span><\/p>\n

Charles C.W. Cooke pointed out additional ironies when he <\/span>tweeted<\/span><\/a>, \u201cFor the record, Alexander Hamilton was an immigration hawk who endorsed the Alien and Sedition Acts and wanted to deport troublemakers.\u201d That makes the hand-wringing of the cast and fans of <\/span>Hamliton<\/span> over Trump\u2019s threats against immigration, and against the freedom to speak truth to power, extra rich.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even Trump\u2019s campaign slogan was Hamiltonian. Hamilton\u2019s stated political goal was \u201cnational greatness.\u201d I kid you not.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump isn\u2019t Hitler. He\u2019s Hamilton, advocating the kind of centralist government Hamilton <\/span>spoke<\/span><\/a> about in secret at the Constitutional Convention and attempted to achieve surreptitiously throughout the rest of his political life by eroding the same limits on federal government power he had trumpeted to sell the Constitution in the Federalist Papers. Trump wants to be Hamilton\u2019s elected king, running a crony-capitalist, mercantilist economy just as Hamilton <\/span>envisioned<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even Trump\u2019s campaign slogan was Hamiltonian. Hamilton\u2019s stated political goal was \u201cnational greatness.\u201d I kid you not.<\/span><\/p>\n

And while Hamilton was certainly a more eloquent and well-mannered spokesman for conservatism, Trump is superior to him in at least one way: Hamilton was a military interventionist, whose ambition to conquer the colonial possessions of Spain was much more like Hitler\u2019s desire to seize the Ukraine for Germany than anything Trump wants to do internationally.<\/span><\/p>\n

One has to wonder: is that the real reason neoconservatives like Bill Kristol, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham are so anti-Trump?<\/span><\/p>\n


\nTom Mullen
\n<\/a><\/h5>\n

Tom Mullen is the author of Where Do Conservatives and Liberals Come From? And What Ever Happened to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? <\/a>and\u00a0A Return to Common Sense: Reawakening Liberty in the Inhabitants of America<\/a>. For more information and more of Tom’s writing, visit\u00a0www.tommullen.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Irony Everyone\u2019s Missing in the Hamilton-Pence Controversy Four days after Mike Pence was lectured by the cast of the hit musical Hamilton and booed by its audience, the controversy rages on. President-elect Trump sent out the expected angry tweet demanding an apology. The left melodramatically gasped, \u201cfreedom of speech,\u201d even though no one has suggested government action against the actors. And, suddenly, the right is more offended than an SJW at an Ann Coulter lecture. Even Trump whined about the theater being a \u201csafe space.\u201d The only person who doesn\u2019t have a strong opinion on this is Mike Pence. He handled the situation with uncommon grace, shrugging off the boos from the crowd with a line for the ages: \u201cThat is what freedom sounds like.\u201d All of this pales in comparison to the supreme irony everyone is missing in this whole overblown controversy. Here we have the cast of a musical that holds Alexander Hamilton in an admiring light expressing deep anxiety about a president who just won a stunning upset victory after running his campaign largely based on the political ideas of \u2013 wait for it \u2013 Alexander Hamilton. Is Trump “Literally” Hitler? The left likes to characterize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2249,1836],"class_list":["post-14660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-hamilton","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}