So much of American political discourse these days focuses on a comparison between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton’s views of Government and society. In fact, this week with the clashes over vaccines and mandates, the Jeffersonian (DeSantis) v Hamiltonian (Biden) comparisons have been made. But neither Jefferson nor Hamilton would fit cleanly into the current political culture. 

While the Jeffersonian world view of yeoman farmers, resistance to big government and a fondness for a slave-based economy might appear to align with today’s Republicans, Jefferson himself was a fairly enlightened and excessively secular figure, who despite his troubling views on African slavery would likely disdained Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Jefferson would have nothing but contempt for the religious bent of many GOP officeholders today and would be a vocal opponent of DeSantis authoritarianism. 

How much did Jefferson dislike lawless strong men like DeSantis? This quote tells the story:

” I feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is one of the most unfit men I know of for such a place. He has had very little respect for laws and constitutions,”

Thomas Jefferson, 1824

Trump, DeSantis and Jackson

President Donald Trump’s love of Andrew Jackson was no secret. He hung a portrait of Jackson in the Oval Office and visited the Hermitage as a pilgrimage of sorts. Trump understood what his advisors most notably Steve Bannon preached to him – the base of the 2016 GOP was Jacksonian, which meant many were traditional Democratic working-class whites who had a disdain for elites and the Federal Government. Mix in the William Jennings Bryan economic populism and religious zeal and you got a Republican Party which looked in many ways nothing like the party of Eisenhower. 

It is worth recalling that it was Andrew Jackson who conquered Florida for the United States, through actions that violated Spain’s sovereignty over both East and West Florida in the 1810’s. Jackson’s desire was to root out a haven for runaway slaves and to crush native American allies of the British. His actions were not universally favored – even that great defender of slavery and southern state’s rights, John C. Calhoun saw Jackson’s actions in Florida as lawless and dangerous at the time. 

As we know this sort of lawlessness and tough guy persona appealed to the likes of Bannon and Trump. But they also provide the template for Ron DeSantis, who unlike Trump, actually has the discipline to implement the type of world Trump supporters wanted. 

DeSantis and his allies consistently undermine liberal precepts like science, institutional norms and even the rule of law (despite claiming to “back the blue”) as some sort of elitist plot. DeSantis in Jacksonian form has a zeal of lawlessness and defies court orders if he feels they are not in line with his thinking. 

He cherry picks scientific evidence and data to attack his opponents as being “anti-science.” But in reality he is the one attacking elites and “pointy heads,” in a very Jacksonian way, similar to the rhetoric of George Wallace and Ronald Reagan among others. 

No question DeSantis is about the most brazen character many of us have seen in public office. His level of populist fervor with the backing of partisan media represents a mortal threat to the Republic should he ever sit in the Oval Office. His outward demeanor is similar to how we perceive Jackson, despite not being a war hero (though DeSantis did serve the nation and that should be lauded)

Biden and Clay

On the other side of the coin, President Joe Biden has a vision for a robust Federal Government like Jackson’s leading opponent Senator Henry Clay. While Clay’s ideology could be seen as a descended from that of Hamilton, Clay’s legislative experience and expertise makes him a better comparison to Biden. Beyond that, Biden, unlike Hamilton, doesn’t have a reverence for aristocracy and militarism that Hamilton did. 

Like Clay, Biden envisions a government which is activist but also largely non-ideological. Clay was a slaveholder who didn’t like slavery, didn’t want it expanded but ultimately didn’t want it tearing the union apart, so was central in multiple compromises on the issue that didn’t really placate either the south or Abolitionists. 

But when push came to shove on repeated occasions, Clay was decisively in the anti-Jackson camp, advocating internal improvements, a strong central banking system and the separation of powers as enumerated in the constitution.  

It is true as pro-Jacksonian historians love to note that Clay often cut a conflicted and contradictory figure. 

Clay, like Biden was a legislative giant, but like Biden prior to 2020, he made multiple attempts to be President and never quite got over the hump as issues like the Bank of the United States and Texas annexation killed his chances.

Much like Clay, Biden’s Senate voting record is littered with the sort of contradictions that come from long-service and being a leader in a body that values consensus. In the case of Clay, he basically was the leader of his party, the Whigs, and it was a party of disparate factions that was largely held together by Clay’s willingness to compromise and a dislike of the Jacksonian Democrats. 

It is true as pro-Jacksonian historians love to note that Clay often cut a conflicted and contradictory figure. Clay, like Biden was a legislative giant, but like Biden prior to 2020, he made multiple attempts to be President and never quite got over the hump as issues like the Bank of the United States and Texas annexation killed his chances.

Much like Clay, Biden’s Senate voting record is littered with the sort of contradictions that come from long-service and being a leader in a body that values consensus. In the case of Clay, he basically was the leader of his party, the Whigs, and it was a party of disparate factions that was largely held together by Clay’s willingness to compromise and a dislike of the Jacksonian Democrats. 

Biden, like Clay could be very pragmatic. In the specific case of this week’s Biden actions on vaccines and the DOJ suing Texas over the new law that protects rapists and encourages vigilante justice while basically eliminating reproductive rights in the state, circumstances dictated Biden be flexible and abandon his historic preference for consensus-building. 

Biden’s Clay-like last week is a reaction to DeSantis Jacksonian actions 

Many people on both left and right have complained in the last two days about the so-called mandates (really suggestions with options) from the President regarding vaccinations and COVID. I am not a fan of executive action without congressional involvement nor am a fan of the Federal Government forcing certain personal medical decisions. But this is an extraordinary time, made all the more challenging by the DeSantis – led national Republican Party’s anti-science, anti-expertise, anti-business, anti-local government, anti-public health and anti-common sense actions. 

So while Biden’s mandates are troubling from where I sit they are less troubling than the circumstances which dictated they be issued. Had the DeSantis-styled anti-science, lawless anti-majoritarian mob rule been checked before the Delta variant spread like wildfire, the President would not have had to take such strong action.  

Governor DeSantis may not say it openly but he fancies himself as the heir to the man who conquered Florida for the United States, Andrew Jackson. Thankfully for the American public outside Florida, during the greatest public health threat of lifetimes, he is merely the Governor of a state (albeit the nation’s third largest) not the President. 

We have a more mature, seasoned and rational person thankfully leading our nation. For now.