News
We Are All Republicans
I know Obama is expected to channel Lincoln today in his inaugural address, but I think the quotable quote is going to come from Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson won the hotly contested election of 1800 after a tied electoral college vote put the decision in the hands of the House of Representatives where, over the course of six days and 36 roll call votes, Jefferson finally won it.
It's not that Obama won in a nail biter like that, but the election of 1800, like the election of 2008, ended a brutal, crippling era of partisanship. Back then, the standoff was between Republicans and Federalists. Roughly translated, liberal Seattleites would have lined up behind the ascendant Republicans, Jefferson's party. (Yes, Jefferson and the Republicans were for smaller government—which seems more like a McCain/Palin rap—but history is weird and when you calibrate the whole thing out, John Adams' Federalists were the conservatives and Jefferson Republicans were the libs.)
Oddly, the tie wasn't even between Jefferson and Adams. It was between two Republicans, Jefferson and the evil Aaron Burr. This explains the whole mess .
Jefferson's election was seen as a peaceful revolution in which a Federalist era of unconstitutionally enforced partisan rule (the Alien and Sedition Acts ) were swept away.
However, Jefferson struck a tone of collegiality and reconciliation when he delivered his inaugural address in March 1801, famously saying: "Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle...We are all Republicans; we are all Federalists."
My bet is Obama hits that theme, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
UPDATE: Well, I was wrong about that. And so far, the most quotable Obama line of the day took the opposite tone. After the speech and after Bush left, when Obama signed his first bit of Presidential business in the Capitol, he joked: "I'm a lefty. Get used to it."
Jefferson won the hotly contested election of 1800 after a tied electoral college vote put the decision in the hands of the House of Representatives where, over the course of six days and 36 roll call votes, Jefferson finally won it.
It's not that Obama won in a nail biter like that, but the election of 1800, like the election of 2008, ended a brutal, crippling era of partisanship. Back then, the standoff was between Republicans and Federalists. Roughly translated, liberal Seattleites would have lined up behind the ascendant Republicans, Jefferson's party. (Yes, Jefferson and the Republicans were for smaller government—which seems more like a McCain/Palin rap—but history is weird and when you calibrate the whole thing out, John Adams' Federalists were the conservatives and Jefferson Republicans were the libs.)
Oddly, the tie wasn't even between Jefferson and Adams. It was between two Republicans, Jefferson and the evil Aaron Burr. This explains the whole mess .
Jefferson's election was seen as a peaceful revolution in which a Federalist era of unconstitutionally enforced partisan rule (the Alien and Sedition Acts ) were swept away.
However, Jefferson struck a tone of collegiality and reconciliation when he delivered his inaugural address in March 1801, famously saying: "Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle...We are all Republicans; we are all Federalists."
My bet is Obama hits that theme, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
UPDATE: Well, I was wrong about that. And so far, the most quotable Obama line of the day took the opposite tone. After the speech and after Bush left, when Obama signed his first bit of Presidential business in the Capitol, he joked: "I'm a lefty. Get used to it."
