Liberal Richard Nixon revisionism vs. liberal Alexander Hamilton revisionism

[Mopsus]

Hamilton was a fervent, radical, and unapologetic opponent of all progressive proposals within his own time period

Not true: he liked industrialization.

[Mopsus]

Hamilton was a fervent, radical, and unapologetic opponent of all progressive proposals within his own time period

Not true: he liked industrialization.

Correct, and there was nothing liberal about that in the 1790s.

It was "progressive", though.

[Mopsus]

Eh, that depends on how you define "progressive." There were certainly segments of the later Progressive movement that drew upon Hamiltonian philosophy, and even Hamiltonian motives, so I can see where you're coming from.

What I'm trying to say is that "conservatism", in the context of the early United States, was defined by parochialism over nationalism; agrarianism over industrialization. Alexander Hamilton represented the antithesis of that.

[Mopsus]

There was no "conservatism" in the early United States. What there was was Toryism, which was associated with having opposed the Revolution and which, while clearly on the right, cut across groups that would today be viewed as all over the place on the scale of socioeconomic advantage. Inasmuch as seeking to conserve political and economic forms inherited from Britain (or replicate forms present in Britain) could be seen as "conservative", Hamilton was obviously more conservative than noted Reign of Terror apologist Jefferson, and he was indisputably reactionary and elitist regardless.

In Jefferson's America, an ideology based on urbanism, government bureaucracy, and the working class would be unfathomable; in Hamilton's America, it would be the natural left pole of national policy. And, indeed, it is.

[Mopsus]

In Hamilton's America the working class would never have gained the right to vote, and so such ideology would never stand an even remote chance.

It's hard to say how that would have played out. On the one hand, the first state to abolish the property requirement was Kentucky, but even Hamilton's state of New York gave poor white men the right to vote in the 1820s.

[Mopsus]

In Hamilton's America the working class would never have gained the right to vote, and so such ideology would never stand an even remote chance.

It's hard to say how that would have played out. On the one hand, the first state to abolish the property requirement was Kentucky, but even Hamilton's state of New York gave poor white men the right to vote in the 1820s.

Which only happened because Hamilton's political party and the general political attitude that he championed were thoroughly defeated in the previous two decades.

What do you mean? Andrew Jackson didn't win the Bank War until the 1830s!

[Mopsus]

In Jefferson's America, an ideology based on urbanism, government bureaucracy, and the working class would be unfathomable; in Hamilton's America, it would be the natural left pole of national policy. And, indeed, it is.

Well, yes, the Federalists won the long game on political economy even as they lost it bigly on electoral politics. I don't think that contradicts what I said.

I don't think so either. Still, when moderns look at something the occurred two hundred years ago, they're naturally going to take the long view. I don't think it's wrong to do so, even if it is wrong to romanticize those who promote your views for all the wrong reasons.

[Mopsus]

Hamilton was the foremost champion of the idea that, while all individuals had certain rights endowed to them by God, human beings were basically unequal, and some men were inherently better suited than others to hold the reigns of power. Accordingly, the Federalist Party adopted the attitude that the role of the common people was to show up to vote every two years and then to shut up and let their betters run the country. This philosophy was totally eviscerated by the Jeffersonian Revolution of 1800, inaugurating a half-century of democratization that left South Carolina as the only state to retain the property requirement on the eve of the Civil War and paved the way for the rise of Jacksonian Democracy and the centrality of the common man to American political rhetoric.

Then what did Jefferson mean when he wrote of the "natural aristocracy"?