Friday, July 5, 2024

Thoughts on July 4th

July 4th is an amazing day. 248 years ago today, a group of extraordinary men signed the Declaration of Independence, creating the country we know and cherish today. For the next seven years, they fought with everything they had and more to defend this country, and I’m proud to say that at least three of my ancestors were among these great patriots. Successive generations have fought to defend us, and while we haven’t always lived up to our ideals, we’ve continued moving forward in the hopes that we will achieve these ideals in time. And as a patriot and a member of a family that has fought to preserve this country and its ideals since its founding, I have always celebrated this day with fervor and glee.

But I don’t feel very celebratory today, and I can tell that feeling is shared by many. A new poll shows that American pride is now at a record low, and it’s not hard to see why.

Our country is careening towards Christofascism, and it feels more and more like there’s nothing we can do to stop this march.

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Election Parallels

After the presidential election of 1800, Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, faced a dilemma. President John Adams, a fellow member of the Federalist party, had lost his re-election bid. Hamilton and Adams had never much liked one another, and had always been rivals, but Hamilton, despite his dislike of Adams and reservations about his character and competence, had reluctantly supported him simply because the alternatives were, in his mind, infinitely worse.

Unfortunately, despite Hamilton’s attempts to sway electors (some of which were highly dubious, both legally and constitutionally), the Electoral College ended up with a four-way split in its vote. As a result, Adams didn’t just lose the election; he came in third place, with just 65 votes, five short of the 70 needed to win at the time. His running mate, Charles Pinckney, came in just behind him at 64 votes.

Running against Adams was Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican who had served as the Secretary of State under Washington, and, due to a quirk in the electoral process that was later rectified with the 12th Amendment, was also Adams’ own Vice President, despite being from opposing parties. Jefferson and Hamilton had long been bitter rivals, and had a mutual, strong disdain for each other. Hamilton’s tepid endorsement of Adams was borne out of his hatred for Jefferson, as well as fears that Jefferson might do great damage to the republic if elected. However, though Jefferson fared better in the electoral vote than Adams, with 73 votes, he hadn’t technically won the election; rather he had tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr, another bitter political rival of Hamilton’s.