To pretend to be personally sorry for the late General Hamilton of New York would only be ridiculous, yet the Iniquity of Life and Fame that makes it completely impossible for him to be the object of a lowbrow cult too has pernicious effects on American party politics. In an ideal world, there would have been a stately castle-cum-palace on the Hudson for George XLIII Bush to make ceremonial addresses from, hence no need to wander out into the backlands of Dixie, hence no call for additional journalistic abuse of the word "irony." In fact it was Monticello or bust. "Life is unfair."
Little Brother’s hired rhetorical hands did not do badly, all things considered. Anybody who cares to look the horse in the mouth may discover that the dynastic lad was made to represent himself as more interested in the independence of the US than in the declaration thereof, more interested in the fact of declaration than in the declaratory document, and more interested in the Declaration than in Mr. Jefferson. Short of not comin’ to visit on Independence Day at all, what more could reasonably be expected of militant extremist Republicans? [1]
The ironymongers carry on as if "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind" had been the announced topic. Himself of Rancho Crawford did not allude to that sound bite at all. Oddly enough. Perhaps his handlers consider that automatic deference to GlobeThink is only peripherally Jeffersonian, a position that might be sustained by a review of US foreign policy in the 1805-1809 administration. When it came to the crunch, TJ rther egregiously insisted upon doing what he thought foreigners ought to think he should do, rather than what anybody would actually have recommended. He can scarcely have been unaware how unimpressive almost everybody found his Grand Embargo. I assume he calculated that Princess Posterity would eventually see things his way, even if none of his contemporaries were up to it.[2] I daresay a relentless fan of "strong reading" could smuggle the Jeffersonian praxis into the familiar fortune cookie: it is only the PREPONDERANT CONSENSUS of opinions of ALL mankind -- past, present and especially yet to come -- that it would be unseemly to disrespect.
Unfortunately if we play by these revised rules, Dr. Rice and Mr. Cheney and Dr. Zawáhirí may pronounce themselves long-term winners as easily as, for example, Sen. Obama and Prof. Chomsky and Mme. Cindy Sheehan. "Life is unfair."
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[1] Lowcult bein’ lowcult, Little Brother's speechwriters were absolutely obliged to quote the obvious snippet:
| And at every generation, Americans have rededicated themselves to the belief that all men are created equal, with the God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. (Applause.) |
Do GOP geniuses actually believe most of that shallow Enlightenment moonbattery? No, of course they do not. By a sort of Hamiltonian slip, George XLIII actually enunciated the authentic Big Management Party position
| These immigrants have helped transform 13 small colonies into a great and growing nation of more than 300 [sic] people. |
One must admire the restraint of the Executive Branch spin machine that did not silently correct that revealin’ little boo-boo. The absolute number is a tad small, though. Three hundred real persons who counted politically in Gen. Hamilton’s day sounds about right, but surely there must be more like a hundred thousand of 'em around as of July 2008?
[2] As far as I can see, her ladyship has yet to rally to the banner of embargo definitively. Militant Republicans are bound to consider that Grand Embargo smacks of Jimmy Crater, and even in the ranks of doves and donkeys there remains the Allbright-Berger-Holbroooke coterie, who see nothing much wrong with aggression and Preëmptive Retaliation that themselves presiding over it would not cure.
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