Nothing like reading a little history to give some perspective on the political polarization we have today. After too long, I'm finishing Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Chernow's fantastic Alexander Hamilton biography (no spoilers, please -- and haven't seen the musical).
The story of Hamilton's brilliance and his faults are better than most any fiction you'll read. And it's amazing that just about 15 years after kicking the British crown's butt in the Revolution and a little more than a decade after ratification of our Constitution, founding fathers Hamilton, Adams, and their Federalists on the one hand and Jefferson, Madison, and their Republicans (no relation to the present party) on the other hand were at each other's throats. Jefferson was conducting back channel talks with the French revolutionaries -- the Communists of that era, while Hamilton was similarly talking behind the scenes to the British -- both of them trying to undermine the efforts of the administration in power to remain neutral at the time. Hell, they even exchanged gunfire at certain points (or so I've heard).
The fact the we were able to overcome all that -- not to mention a civil war 70 years later that cost well over half a million American lives -- and then join together to fight two world wars, makes today's disputes seem transitory and like small potatoes indeed.
The story of Hamilton's brilliance and his faults are better than most any fiction you'll read. And it's amazing that just about 15 years after kicking the British crown's butt in the Revolution and a little more than a decade after ratification of our Constitution, founding fathers Hamilton, Adams, and their Federalists on the one hand and Jefferson, Madison, and their Republicans (no relation to the present party) on the other hand were at each other's throats. Jefferson was conducting back channel talks with the French revolutionaries -- the Communists of that era, while Hamilton was similarly talking behind the scenes to the British -- both of them trying to undermine the efforts of the administration in power to remain neutral at the time. Hell, they even exchanged gunfire at certain points (or so I've heard).
The fact the we were able to overcome all that -- not to mention a civil war 70 years later that cost well over half a million American lives -- and then join together to fight two world wars, makes today's disputes seem transitory and like small potatoes indeed.
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