November 30, 2016
Page 7
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O PINION
What Trump Could Learn from Alexander Hamilton
J ill r iChardson
By now you’ve
probably heard that
Vice
President-elect
Mike Pence was booed
by fellow theater-go-
ers at a performance of
the musical Hamilton, an unlike-
ly hip-hop sensation that tells the
story of Alexander Hamilton and
other founding fathers.
Then, at the end of the show,
the cast respectfully addressed
Pence and asked him to protect
the rights of all Americans — in
all their diversity.
Donald Trump immediately
demanded that the cast of Ham-
ilton apologize to Pence. Twit-
ter responded with the hashtag
#NameAPenceMusical, offering
up suggestions such as “Oklaho-
mophobia!” and “Rent: But Not to
Those People.”
To be fair, the latter belongs
less to Pence than to Trump and
his father, who faced numerous
accusations of racial bias in their
real estate business.
Some Trump supporters used
the incident to make a point of
their own. Among them, one noted
by
that Hamilton was the cre-
ator of the Electoral Col-
lege, the system that gave
Trump the presidency even
though he lost the popular
vote by a significant mar-
gin.
If Trump supporters are inter-
ested in using this moment to dis-
cuss Hamilton’s role in history, I
think it’s a fine idea.
Hamilton is one of the most
influential interpreters of our
Constitution, as well as one of its
authors. And here’s what we can
learn from him.
First, Hamilton wanted a strong
central government. He advocated
taxation. He took these positions
for practical reasons, not because
he was a flaming liberal.
Hamilton was George Wash-
ington’s “right hand man” (to
quote the musical) during the Rev-
olutionary War. He saw the prob-
lems our army had due to lack of
funds and a weak central govern-
ment and wanted to prevent such
problems going forward.
Second, Hamilton was the
original opponent of the “strict
constructionist” view of the Con-
stitution.
Strict constructionism is what
Trump claims to look for in a Su-
preme Court appointee. It’s a doc-
trine that insists that we must only
interpret the words of the Consti-
tution literally, as they were writ-
ten in the 18th century, and make
no room for interpretation.
Hamilton, who was in the room
It’s not going out on a limb to
guess that Hamilton wouldn’t like
how modern-day Republicans play
chicken with our nation’s credit
rating every time we need to raise
the debt ceiling.
where the document was written,
thought otherwise.
Third, Hamilton saw the impor-
tance of establishing the U.S. bank-
ing system with strong credit. At our
nation’s founding, we were mired in
debt and our credit was worthless.
He saw the need to turn that around,
and turn it around he did.
A Prayer to Stand Up for All Our Children
by m arian W right e delman
Lord I can’t preach like Martin
Luther King, Jr. or turn a poetic
phrase like Maya Angelou
but I care and am willing to serve
and stand with others to move
our children forward in this
time of Thanksgiving.
I don’t have Harriet Tubman’s courage
but I care and am willing to serve and stand with
others until no child is hungry
or homeless in rich America.
God it is not as easy as the 60’s to frame an issue
and forge a solution
but we will keep trying until we succeed because
we care and are willing to serve and stand togeth-
er with others to protect our children.
or Eleanor Roosevelt’s political skills
My mind and body are not so swift as in youth and
my energy comes in spurts
but I care and am willing to serve and stand with
others to save all our children no matter how
hard the challenge.
but I care and am willing to serve and stand with
others and organize and do whatever is necessary
to protect our children from gun violence.
I cannot sing like Marian Anderson or Fannie Lou
Hamer
Some will think I’m so young nobody will listen
or organize like Ella Baker and Bayard Rustin
I feel invisible and hopeless and I’m not sure what
to say or do
but I care and am willing to serve and stand up with
others until all our children get health care.
but you can say I care and am willing to serve and
I am not holy like Archbishop Tutu, forgiving like
President Mandela
work with others to break up the Cradle to Prison
Pipeline.
or disciplined like Mahatma Gandhi
Some say we can’t see or hear well, don’t speak
good English, stutter sometimes
but I care and am willing to serve and stand with
others until child poverty is abolished.
and get real scared, standing up before others
I am not brilliant like Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois or Eliza-
beth Cady Stanton
or as eloquent as Sojourner Truth and Booker T.
Washington
but I care and am willing to serve and stand with
others until every child has
an equal and quality education.
I don’t have Mother Teresa’s saintliness
or The Dalai Lama’s or Dorothy Day’s or Cesar
Chavez’s gentle tough spirit
It’s not going out on a limb to
guess that Hamilton wouldn’t like
how modern-day Republicans
play chicken with our nation’s
credit rating every time we need
to raise the debt ceiling.
Fourth, for his time, Hamilton
had relatively progressive views
on race relations. He opposed
slavery, and thought blacks were
as intelligent as whites — a view
that many of our other founding
fathers sadly didn’t share.
Fifth, unlike the president-elect,
Hamilton never used his position
in government to enrich himself.
He prided himself on his squeaky
clean ethics and honesty and,
when questioned, encouraged
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but let’s take a stand and do whatever we can to
organize with others to save all our children.
God, in this time of Thanksgiving
use me as you will to save your children today and
tomorrow and to keep building
a nation and world fit for children and where no
child is left behind and every child is welcome
and valued.
Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Chil-
dren’s Defense Fund.
his enemies to investigate him as
much as they liked.
That’s in contrast to Trump,
who’s positioning himself to make
a fortune off his newfound power
by keeping his business empire
within the family while he serves
as president (and who just had
to settle a fraud case against his
Trump University for $25 million).
Sixth, Hamilton’s name was
sullied in his lifetime by false
accusations of everything from
wanting to turn the U.S. into a
monarchy to enriching himself
from his government job. I can’t
help but see a similarity to Hillary
Clinton, who’s been accused of
every crime in the book.
Hamilton’s story shows that
widespread allegations don’t
equate to guilt. In the end, he was
innocent of almost everything.
Instead of an apology, I hope
the cast of Hamilton gives Pence
something else — like an encore
performance.
OtherWords columnist Jill
Richardson is the author of Recipe
for America: Why Our Food Sys-
tem Is Broken and What We Can
Do to Fix It.
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