WaPo: Hamilton pushed for impeachment powers. Trump is what he had in mind.

[Celerity]

He wanted a strong president — and a way to get rid of the demagogic ones.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/10/18/hamilton-pushed-impeachment-powers-trump-is-what-he-had-mind/?arc404=true



President Trump has described the impeachment proceedings as a “coup,” and his White House counsel has termed them “unconstitutional.” This would come as a surprise to Alexander Hamilton, who wrote not only the 11 essays in “The Federalist” outlining and defending the powers of the presidency, but also the two essays devoted to impeachment.

There seems little doubt, given his writings on the presidency, that Hamilton would have been aghast at Trump’s behavior and appalled by his invitation to foreign actors to meddle in our elections. As a result, he would most certainly have endorsed the current impeachment inquiry. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Trump embodies Hamilton’s worst fears about the kind of person who might someday head the government. Among our founders, Hamilton’s views count heavily because he was the foremost proponent of a robust presidency, yet he also harbored an abiding fear that a brazen demagogue could seize the office.

That worry helps to explain why he analyzed impeachment in such detail: He viewed it as a crucial instrument to curb possible abuses arising from the enlarged powers he otherwise championed. Unlike Thomas Jefferson, with his sunny faith in the common sense of the people, Hamilton emphasized their “turbulent and changing” nature and worried about a “restless” and “daring usurper” who would excite the “jealousies and apprehensions” of his followers. He thought the country should be governed by wise and illustrious figures who would counter the fickle views of the electorate with reasoned judgments. He hoped that members of the electoral college, then expected to exercise independent judgment, would select “characters preeminent for ability and virtue.”

From the outset, Hamilton feared an unholy trinity of traits in a future president — ambition, avarice and vanity. “When avarice takes the lead in a State, it is commonly the forerunner of its fall,” he wrote as early as the Revolutionary War. He dreaded most the advent of a populist demagogue who would profess friendship for the people and pander to their prejudices while secretly betraying them. Such a false prophet would foment political frenzy and try to feed off the confusion.

snip

[WePurrsevere]

1. This is very well worth a full read through IMO but this part...

Sounds so much like Trump I can almost hear the 'Twilight Zone' theme playing...

...Hamilton sketched out the type of charlatan who would most threaten the republic: “When a man unprincipled in private life[,] desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper . . . despotic in his ordinary demeanour — known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty — when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity — to join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day — It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’ ” Given the way Trump has broadcast suspicions about the CIA, the FBI, the diplomatic corps, senior civil servants and the “deep state,” Hamilton’s warning about those who would seek to discredit the government as prelude to a possible autocracy seems prophetic.

[Celerity]

2. it is almost as if a screenplay writer took all of Hamilton's fears and descriptions of a despot and

created.....

[WePurrsevere]

4. Freaky but true. Hopefully this character's part in the play...

Ends very soon.

Perhaps the closing scene of the movie will go sort of like this...

The camera starts focused in on Trump, dressed in an old wrinkled suit with a faded long red tie, sitting in a white room furnished in cheap tacky golden items. He quietly nods his head repeatedly, his eyes are glazed over and he has a crooked smile on his face.

As we pan out a bit we seem to be viewing a black & white scene out of Trump's imagination where in a dreamlike mist the ghosts of his parents & brother are gathered around him telling him whispering to him how great and wonderful he is.

The camera pans out a bit further and we now see his youngest son Barron, now an adult, sitting awkwardly in a tacky golden chair looking at Trump. Finally the young man shakes his head in frustration, stands up, says, "Goodnight, Father", and walks out of the room.

We hear the sound of a heavy door closing as the camera starts to pan out. At first we see a large building that looks like an old mansion. As the camera continues to pan out we realize that what we thought was just an old mansion is surrounded by more stark modern buildings and we start to see a few people in correctional and medical uniforms wandering around the grounds, some walking with what is obviously a 'patient'. In the final scene we see that there is very high fencing with razor wire along the top that is surrounding the property and that there are tiny guard houses around the perimeter. Finally the screen fades to black... "Finis"

[Celerity]

5. +10000

[Duppers]

6. An uncanny 'ringer' description.

Amazing. 👍

Hump and his followers are proof that some of human nature stays consistent and unevolved.

[Guilded Lilly]

3. A spot-on prediction if there ever was one.

[Takket]

7. Was Hamilton a time traveler??? It feels like he saw all this!

[Dennis Donovan]

8. Is it just me, or does that Hamilton look like Bryan Cranston?

:idea:

[safeinOhio]

9. Had to look up "avarice"

av·a·rice
/ˈavərəs/
Learn to pronounce
noun
extreme greed for wealth or material gain.
"he was rich beyond the dreams of avarice"
Similar:
greed
acquisitiveness
cupidity
covetousness
avariciousness

[Celerity]

10. it is a great word, I use it on occasion

[Poiuyt]

11. In times like these, I really enjoy hearing the viewpoints of historians like Chernow

And since Ron Chernow wrote a biography of Alexander Hamilton, he should have a good idea of how he felt about these matters.

[Mc Mike]

12. Only when Hamilton was on his ether opium binges.