Dan Erwin

Adam Schiff Meets Alexander Hamilton

Long before Alexander Hamilton arrived on the Broadway stage, he forecast the rise of a presidential demagogue. A trusted member of George Washington’s cabinet and Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton wrote the majority of the Federalist papers in his late twenties, finishing them by the time he was thirty-years-old. Not only did he pen this work—the fundamental interpretation of the Constitution--but he heavily influenced the ratification of the Constitution by bringing in the state of New York. And all this by the time he was thirty years old (especially for those of you who are so concerned about the age of today’s presidential candidates).

As a 35-year-old, here’s what he wrote about his fears and anticipation of a presidential conman on the golden escalator.

When a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents . . . is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government and bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day—it may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”

Although not all history is predictive, as a critical tool history sometimes...

So, Pete Buttigieg Annoys His Competition

I find that amusing. Especially when his competitors immediately go to his lack of Washington experience. There is absolutely no necessary correlation whatsoever between experience and expertise. That’s a well-researched conclusion.

My wife, an elementary school teacher, came home one day with an anecdote from a teachers’ workshop. The speaker told the story of someone wanting a position as elementary coach because she had twenty years of elementary school experience. Her principal refused, but later in an aside to his assistant commented that actually she didn’t have twenty years of experience. She just had twenty years of first year experience.

And still others will say that Mayor Pete...