Monroe, James
1817–1825

Monroe presided over the 'Era of Good Feelings' (1817-1825) — a deliberate national-unity orientation after the bitter Federalist-Republican factionalism of the Adams and Jefferson eras — and his Monroe Doctrine (1823) established American protection of democratic neighbors in the Americas from European imperial interference. The Missouri Compromise (1820) was an uneasy compromise on slavery during his administration; he expanded the federal government modestly while maintaining founding-era constitutional restraint. Paxton's primary-campaign factionalism runs hard against Monroe's Era-of-Good-Feelings national-unity ethos; the modern Monroe Doctrine analog is alliance restoration and defense of democratic neighbors, which is closer to Talarico's framework than to MAGA isolationism. Talarico's alliance-restoration foreign policy, anti-faction anti-corruption framing, and defense of democratic institutions track Monroe's framework reasonably well. He loses some points on expanded federal government and on the more confrontational rhetorical mode that Monroe's deliberate national-unity orientation would discourage.