The first two political 'parties' to form after adoption of the Constitution, and during George Washington's administration, were the republicans and the federalists.
The republicans (please note the small 'r') aligned themselves with Thomas Jefferson, who was bitterly opposed to the increasingly-powerful central government envisioned by Alexander Hamilton and his supporters. The Jeffersonian republicans favored a strictly limited "General Government", as Jefferson called it, with an emphasis on States' rights & sovereignty.
Hamilton's falling out with Jefferson over this very issue - and peripheral issues including a national bank and an array of tax proposals from Hamilton - caused first Jefferson, then Hamilton himself, to resign their cabinet posts while George Washington was still in office.
Jefferson himself was a libertarian (again, please note the lower-case 'l'), and that works for me. His concept of the Republic, then newly-formed, was to emphasize the rights and power of The People and the States, with power flowing upward from the citizens.
So in answer to the e-mailed question, I am a Jeffersonian republican. I am aligned with no particular political party, unless someone formed a Jefferson/Constitution Party while I wasn't looking.
Psalm 22:27-28: “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he ruleth among the nations.”
2 comments:
I recall reading once upon a time that both Hamilton and Jefferson - indeed most everyone at the time IIRC - sorely lamented the rise of factionalism... that which would become the parties we know today.
(I wonder what it would be like if we kept the original Pres/VP being first and second place? Tons more gridlock I bet, but um.. not convinced that's bad. :) )
Generally speaking, I prefer the Jeffersonian model as well, but I think it's fair to say the man was a utopian in many ways. Hamilton, for all I disagree with him on ..well.. tons of stuff.. had the advantage of pragmatism, did he not?
Hamilton understood that taxes had to be raised to enable the fed.gov to carry out its delineated powers. But he wanted more, more, and more again.
Jefferson more grudgingly acknowledged the necessity of some tax, but wanted to draw a line in the sand. "That far, but no farther." He believed Hamilton's worldview would lead to dangerous expansion of a central gov't hungry for yet more.
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