Thoreau and others voiced a sentiment later adapted into a reassuring speech given by President Roosevelt on the eve of getting the United States entrenched in the Second World War. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Whether or not you agree with Roosevelt’s words as spoken at that moment, you may agree with the statement in general and at all times. Most of our conflicts are failures to accept the reality in which we live.
At the birth of my nation and in the years following the Revolution, we faced a crisis of opinion. We are still grappling with the very same duality of vision and still failing to reconcile it.
The two individuals pictured are Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. They disagreed ideologically, and their differences of vision threatened to tear the infant Republic apart and led to the advent of political parties and the first transfer of political party power when Jefferson was elected president in the most contentious election we have ever had.
At the risk of over-simplification, the dispute hinged on the advisability of centralizing or decentralizing the powers of government. Hamilton (and Washington) wanted to establish the National Bank to raise revenues to pay debts and fund future endeavors. Jefferson, the words of the Enlightenment philosophers inspiring his idealism, wanted more power to remain locally and with the states. Historians will be quick to point out that Jefferson quickly reversed his thinking when he became president, notably when he bypassed everyone to purchase the Louisiana Territory.
Today, we see the same conflict being played out once again, but this time, both sides are embodied in one man, President Donald Trump. When he says, “Let the states decide,” he looks like a Jeffersonian liberal. But then he signs more executive orders and unilaterally makes tariff demands, and we see the ghost of Alexander Hamilton coming back to life.
President Trump is not a conservative. Today’s conservatives call for smaller (less powerful) government. When they look into the mirror, they see the classically liberal Jefferson looking back. And that is the ironic conundrum in which we currently find ourselves!
Proposed: Two hundred and fifty years is long enough! Let us resolve these fundamental issues equitably and reasonably. We must have overall unity and agreeable uniformity, and the concerns of the people must always light the way. We can find the correct balance, and we must reconcile our ideals.
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