“I’m a Federalist”
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“I’m a Federalist,” claimed Gov. Palin early last week and then it was Senator McCain’s turn to say the words during the last debate. Most interesting. Was John McCain taking his lead from Gov. Palin or do they both have the same speech writer? And what do they both believe the word “Federalist” means to the American voter?
Now if the general public had read David McCullough’s 1776 or perhaps his John Adams they would have a sense of what Senator McCain said and, certainly, if they were familiar with Broadus Mitchell’s Alexander Hamilton and Edward Larson’s A Magnificent Catastrophe they could have a sense of where the good Senator was coming from.
Who are these Federalists? Well the most recognizable and famous of the founding fathers would be John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. They were deemed Federalist as they supported the adoption of a strong Constitution that would bind the rebelling English colonies together. They were not assured of success, of course, as there was a competing group that became known as the anti-federalist, who preferred a loose federation of former colonies or even separate independent ones.
So much for revolutionary history for the moment. However, is this what Senator McCain meant by calling himself a Federalist? One who supports the Constitution? He could have just said “I support the Constitution.” Is there something else here that is being missed?
Perhaps we have to move on a few years to the creation of political parties, something George Washington hoped would never happen. By the time George Washington had finished his second term, the country had split into two fractions: the Federalist and the Republicans.
The Republicans are not the same
Republicans that we have today. The
Republicans of 1800 were those who believed in the Republic form of government,
as in the Republic of the
Our friends the Federalist had developed a different view: a strong central government under the rule of a strong, powerful President. Could this be the Federalist to which Senator McCain was making reference? Certainly George Bush and Dick Cheney could fall under the Federalist umbrella but is this the same umbrella under which Senator McCain wishes to walk? It certainly isn’t the place he has said he wished to be; that he believed in the people and their right to choose, or is that the wrong phrase?
Could it be that he is an historical “Republican” rather than a Federalist? Somehow I don’t think so as that group was led by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the Pinckneys of South Carolina and is now known as the Democrat Party.
So where does poor Senator McCain fit in as a Federalist? It’s a mystery.
However, there is another possibility and that would be in the dictionary. The Oxford English Reference Dictionary defines “federal” as “…a system of government in which several states form a unity but remain independent in internal affairs.” The definition given for “federalism” is “…a system of government which unites separate states while allowing each to have a substantial degree of autonomy.”
So perhaps here we have found Senator McCain’s definition of a Federalist. He’s a states righter, one who believes the states are sovereign within their own borders. While the High Federalist, Alexander Hamilton, would not be particularly happy with that position, Thomas Jefferson would probably find it quite appealing. So does that make Senator McCain a modern day Jeffersonian Republican?
Does this mean that in 1860, John McCain would have lined up against the nomination of Abraham Lincoln, of the New Republican Party, of which the current Republican Party claims as its roots?
Confused? Perhaps we have just uncovered the Achilles heel of Senator McCain: the inability to properly define himself.
In his campaign against George W. Bush in 2000, he appeared to be a mainstream Republican with some conservative credentials. In the primary of 2008 he declared himself to be a CONSERVATIVE republican. In the current presidential election he has announced himself to be a maverick and thereby not beholding to anyone or any particular party philosophy. Now he is a Federalist.
If he fails in this election it may very well be that he has over defined himself, much to the confusion of the general public, the media and the voters.
© 2008 Timothy Holland First Published: 10/22/2008
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