I am trying to answer for my US History class the question of which political parties today most resemble the Federalists and the Republicans of the Jeffersonian Era respectively. At first I wanted to say that the modern day Republicans are closest to the Jeffersonian Republicans because they are "theoretically" against big government as opposed to modern day Democrats. But Bush is a big government president and so that doesn't hold water. I could also argue that the modern day Democrats are like the Jeffersonian Republicans because they are considered the populist party.
And then I realized that the true answer is that there are no more Jeffersonian Republicans. Republicans are Federalists (with an emphasis on private business) and Democrats are Federalists (with an emphasis on government spending). But Federalists ultimately rule the day either way you look at it. Am I way off?
Posted by todd at November 2, 2005 02:16 PM