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Posted by Greg on November 13, 19101 at 15:40:52:
In Reply to: I agree with you posted by ABHouston on November 13, 19101 at 15:23:15:
: I think Hamilton would favor any centralizing force over any dispersing force, politically. So, by extension, he would view the lasting institutionalizing of splintering factions as too divisive to be tolerable. Anything to support centralizing political activity, including subsidizing it (through the matching funds provisions or something else) to keep fringe groups out, would have his support. It's that centralizing theme that I see as more relevant to Hamilton's core rather than the issue of the use of taxpayers' money.
: Look--we still have the electoral college as a holdover from Hamilton's time, and the winner-takes-all system which binds the electoral college serves to destroy fringe candidates anyway. Hamilton was explicitly in favor of this type of system which buffered the Presidency from direct majority decision.
: Here's something to consider: Hamilton (and his counterpart Jefferson) lived in a time when neither of them could fathom the existence of LEGITIMATE opposition in an institutionalized party. See, each of them felt that the other had betrayed the intended purpose of the Constitution and would lead the country to ruin. That's some serious stuff (!), and it's an important point that out, because it explains why the two camps attacked each other so vehemently.
: So, what you and I are trying to do is ume that Hamilton lived in modern times and thus would accept that competing parties could coexist while having different points of view (instead of "betraying" the true purpose of government by having the audicity to disagree). My point is that it's all layered conjecture anyway.
: Finally, I am not a professor--I am a practitioner. Besides my experience at the local, county, State, and federal levels of government, I hold a Master of Public Administration, if any of this counts as qualification(s).
***It is very re-uring that someone of your historical knowledge may inhabit positions of public service.
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