Earlier this year I got a chance to see Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the American Shakespear Center in Staunton, Virginia. It was an incredibly fun and entertaining show.

As a populist president who rose to power on a racist platform, and committed one of the worst transgressions the United States has ever seen, I absolutely saw some warning about where we are headed right now.

Populism is one of those ideas that seems right in theory, but when put into practice it often leads to a tyranny of the majority. I can’t help but wonder if John Stuart Mill was inspired by Andrew Jackson when he wrote his warnings against tyranny. One way we can yeild these warnings is as Mill’s put it:

“A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.”

We must remember that inaction can be just as bad as action.  We can’t sit ideally by as we see a tyranny of the majority. We must speak up.

The US survived the presidency of Andrew Jackson. As with most things in the past, we can only hope to learn from it. These clips are from when Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson was presented on Broadway. If a local theater near you puts on a performance, I highly recommend it.