To Brooks: What about Adams?

Today David Brooks posts an excellent column in the NY Times entitled “No, It’s Not About Race”. He proposes that we go back in our history to understand the fundamental differences in Hamilton and Jefferson’s philosophy of the role of government.

Brooks then takes this prism to his eye to help us examine America today: The Hamiltonian urbanites who believe in centralized government (Obama) in contrast with the populist agrarian Jeffersonians. It makes for an interesting way to view America. Many say that re-reading the Federalist Papers (here’s a copy) every year helps to remind us why we disagree and gives us, or most of us, good historical debate fuel for the continuous issue fires.

So with this column, Brooks, in his usual moderate, twice a week witty way, helps to calm the waters, steering our mind’s eye away from the race-based current events to something a bit older, he says. More fundamental than race.

You could argue with Brooks and say that Jefferson, as a slave owner, had this reality of race literally in his back yard (more like the back 40). And I’m sure the descendents of Sally Hemings would have something to say about this. You could argue that why should we study a fellow like Hamilton, one who embroiled himself so much in frivolous personal controversy with Aaron Burr, that the result was a tragic duel in New Jersey, just down the road from Tony Soprano’s house. Hamilton lost by the way.

While Jefferson philosophized in Monticello and Hamilton laid his cornerstone to Wall Street, we deserve to remember John Adams, there up in Massachusetts, reading writing, debating, watching commerce happen. Up there near Harvard and Yale, still the places that influence our government most, really. Like Adams, the graduates come south every year to match wits with the rest of America. He came from a place where people worked.

A better model, though, is Abigail Adams. Abigail, like her biblical namesake, was the literate bright light of reason that cooled John Adams’ heels, and clarified his mind. Hers was a voice of America more valuable than John’s fiery speeches, Hamilton’s market based visions, and Jefferson’s agrarian plantation-inspired gentry utopia. Read her letters
once a year, instead of those boring Federalist Papers.

What we’ve got here, is failure to communicate.