I’m a huge fan of Hamilton: The Musical, probably more than I should admit. During the second song, Hamilton meets Aaron Burr, his idol. As Hamilton talks to Burr, Burr offers political advice that doesn’t sit right with the fiery and passionate Hamilton. Specifically, Burr says, “talk less, smile more. Don’t let them [the voters] know what you’re against or what you’re for… you wanna get ahead? Fools who run their mouths off wind up dead.” Further along in the song, Burr declines to publicly voice his opinions and states: “you spit [what you believe], I’m ‘a sit. We’ll see where we land.” Hamilton responds with an iconic line: “If you stand for nothing Burr, what do you fall for?”. Lin Manuel Miranda, the writer of Hamilton, frames Burr as a weak politician unable to take a stand and credits Burr's lack of activism as the downfall to his career. Yet, based on the median voter theorem, I beg to differ.
The median voter theorem is the idea that politicians will shift their policies as close as possible to the center of the voter distribution to appeal to the median vote, and that this median vote is often the deciding factor of elections. A further interpretation of the theory is that "any politician who strays too far from voters at the philosophical center will soon be out of office." Under certain conditions discussed in class, the median vote is the deciding factor in elections. Thus, by appealing to this moderate vote, politicians are more likely to win. Hamilton frames Burr as a politician unable to take a stand and therefore unable to gain votes. Instead, Burr was simply appealing to the median voter by staying moderate and neutral in his policies. Burr may not have been an activist, but he certainly was a strategist.
No comments:
Post a Comment