David Brooks’s review of Chernow’s hagiographic biography of Hamilton makes a number of implausible claims, above all the following characterization of the GOP: “Today our liberal/conservative debates tend to pit the advocates of government against the advocates of the market. Today our politics is dominated by rival strands of populism: the anticorporate populism of the Democrats and the anti-Washington populism of the Republicans.” Somehow, anti-government is not the term that comes to mind when describing the Bush administration and the party faithful.
Some writers will say anything
