Comments on Gregory

Some thoughts about the article (see previous post)

I like Alexander Hamilton so my first response is to reject what I see as criticism of him.

Gregory writes

Those who believed in a strong central government, typified early on by Alexander Hamilton, found their political home first in the Federalist Party, then in the Whig Party, and then in the Republican Party, the last of which openly embraced the doctrine of big government throughout the 19th century.

There is a difference between "strong central government" and "big government". Big government is bad but in Hamiltonian terms I think strong central government is good. I don't want to equate the two. We wouldn't have a country today without initial changes that created central government.

My friend responded -

Agreed. It's funny but, even the most ardent advocates of a strong central government (federalists), by today's standards, would be whacko extremist rabid anarchist libertarians.