Back during July of this year, there was a special extra matinee performance of Hamilton, and it was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The tickets weren’t cheap. General seats were priced at $2,700; preferred seats were $5,000; premium seats and a photo reception with Mrs. Clinton was priced at were $10,000; one could have a premium seat and attend the wrap party for $33,400. “Event chair” sponsorships could be had for $100,000. The Hillary Victory Fund bought out the theatre (1,321 seats) and rented the theater. We don’t know how much money they raised or if they discounted some of the seats, but there can be no doubt that the producers and cast of Hamilton were firmly in the Clinton camp. What’s more, in November 2015, the Democratic Hope Fund hosted a performance of Hamilton as a fundraiser. So it came as only a slight surprise that the producers and cast prepared a statement of protest for Mr. Pence, which was read by Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr – who served, appropriately enough, as Vice-President under Thomas Jefferson (and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel). Here’s another delicious angle: Alexander Hamilton was one of the creators of the concept for an Electoral College, which would protect the interests of the smaller states, which reassured them enough to contribute to their ratification of the Constitution. The Electoral College is currently out of favor with the Democrats, who seem to be the greatest fans of Hamilton (or more accurately, the company of Hamilton is great fans of Democrats).
In today’s agitated climate of opinion, Mr. Trump is thus accused of “stifling dissent.” Hmm. We can think of one time when someone publicly criticized an elected official in a public forum, and was thoroughly rebuked for it. Yes, back in 2013 at the National Prayer Breakfast, Ben Carson (long before he was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination) rebuked President Obama, who was also at the head table. Did the institutional left and the mainstream media lionize Mr. Carson for “speaking truth of power” or “exercising his freedom of expression”? Hardly, He was stoutly criticized by the President’s people and the two groups mentioned in the previous sentence, just as he was enthusiastically cheered by all those “deplorable” people who didn’t like President Obama’s policies. And of course, most Democrats are cheering on the Hamilton cast, just as most Republicans think they were rude and crossed the line. So we are left with this: if is rude and improper for someone to single out a Democratic progressive at a “non-political” public forum such as the National Prayer Breakfast; it is equally wrong to single out a Republican conservative at a non-political forum such as a Broadway play. Guess it all matters whose ox is being gored.
Mr. Trump is not the only person who thinks the cast was rude and out of line. Ed Rendell, former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said this in reference to the lecture by the Hamilton cast: “It was just awful... There have to be limits. Public officials have to have some space that’s off-limits. “ We imagine that the former Governor will be accused of “stifling dissent.” Well, let’s let the last word belong to the subject of the theater lecture, Mr. Pence, who demonstrated that he has the kind of grace and class that few politicians possess. Referring to the lecture he received, Mr. Pence said, “That’s what freedom sounds like.” We can imagine both Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton would have approved of his response, and we can imagine Mr. Dixon saying “Touché.”