So I was listening to Washington On Your Side again and I realized something I donât see people talk about enough: even in the musical, nobody except Burr âwaits for it.â Like literally. Everyone else acts. Even when their actions are wrong, they act.
People always interpret Burrâs whole âtalk less, smile moreâ philosophy as some kind of moral restraint, like heâs being careful not to do harm. But the musical itself doesnât reward that reading. No one else treats waiting as a virtueâcertainly not Washington, and definitely not Jefferson or Madison.
Although people frame this song as three evil besties joining an Anti-Hamilton club, when Burr enters this song, heâs not joining a righteous rebellion. Heâs joining a complaint session about Hamiltonâs power, but Jefferson and Madison donât even really include him. Because heâs not a Democratic-Republican; heâs a man looking for a team that will let him hate in peace.
Burrâs grievances are personal, not political. Listen to how he talks in that song (âlook in his eyes!â, âsomebody has to stand up to his mouth!â). These arenât policy critiques. Theyâre insults. Theyâre the kind of petty interpersonal slights that matter to Burr, because Hamiltonâs existence is a mirror to everything Burr refuses to be.
And then, linguistically (!!!), Jefferson and Madison go âSouthern motherf***inâ Democratic-Republicans!â while Burr just goes ââDemocratic-Republicans!â He literally doesnât say Southern, because thatâs not his identity. Heâs tagging along. Heâs not fighting for the South or for statesâ rights; heâs fighting against Hamilton because heâs jealous.
Jefferson and Madison are talking about national credit, federal overreach, the Southâs economyâand Burrâs just like, âwell heâs smug and I hate him.â
Burrâs tragedy is that he doesnât belong anywhere. The song starts with:
âIt must be nice, it must be nice to have Washington on your side...â
âwe wonât be invisible, we wonât be denied.â
But Burr is invisible. Heâs denied everywhere. Jefferson and Madison have a shared cause. Hamilton has Washington. Burr? Heâs got...nothing. And thatâs what drives him to latch onto other peopleâs causes. He doesnât actually believe in their politicsâhe believes in not being left out. So when he sings along with them, itâs hollow. He doesnât mean âwe wonât be deniedâ politically; he means he wonât be denied recognition anymore.
Nobody sides with Burr because Burr never really picks a side.
The genius of Hamiltonâs writing is that even in this sceneâwhere Burr, Jefferson, and Madison are technically unitedâtheyâre not on the same page. Burr is motivated by envy, the others by ideology. Jefferson and Madison are fighting a system, Burrâs fighting a person. And when you fight a person instead of an idea, youâre already losing.
Whatâs even funnier (tragically funny, you know) is how the song pretends to unite them by the repeated line of:
âIt must be nice, it must be nice
To have Washington on your side.â
Theyâre all chanting the same refrain but meaning totally different things. Madison means: âheâs got too much influence.â Jefferson means: âour system is unbalanced.â Burr means: âI wish someone powerful liked me.â Theyâre singing in unison but completely out of harmony.
âIf thereâs a fire youâre trying to douse / you canât put it out from inside the house.â
Thatâs such a subtle condemnation of Burrâs entire philosophy. Jefferson basically says: you canât fix corruption by playing it safe from within the system. You have to act. You have to risk. And Burrâwhoâs been âtalking lessâ and âsmiling moreâ and waiting for his chanceâcanât do that.
Jefferson even calls himself complicit for staying in the cabinet too long. Like he recognizes the Burr-esque impulse in himselfâthe temptation to wait, to play alongâand rejects it. So what does he do? He takes an extreme, does not throw away his shot, and he resigns. He leaves Washingtonâs cabinet (Hamiltonâs world, basically) and runs for president. Which, hilariously, is actually a Hamiltonian move in how extreme it is. Jefferson resigns to pursue power directly, not by scheming quietly in the background. He throws himself into the political spotlight, exactly like Hamilton always does. He doesnât wait for it; he moves. Burr could never.
In fact, Jefferson takes the Hamiltonian extremes all the time, such as...well, siding with your enemies, as proven with The Room Where It Happens and The Election Of 1800s. He needs endorsement from Hamilton. The same man he spent a whole act trying to dismantle. The same man he resigned over. In Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story, that ideology he either adopted from Hamilton or always shared with him, will make him Hamiltonâs successor. He says:
âIâll give him this: his financial system is a work of genius.
I couldnât undo it if i tried...and, I tried.â
Thatâs not just political acknowledgment, thatâs narrative surrender. Jefferson becomes the man who carries Hamiltonâs ideology forward because he failed to destroy it. He inherits it. He becomes the reluctant guardian of Hamiltonâs creation.
And then thereâs Burr.
President Jefferson: ...
President Madison: ...
âBurrâs the one introducing them.
Burrâs the narrator of the narration.
The man who killed Hamilton is reduced to setting up the men who carry Hamiltonâs story. Burr never got to âliveâ in the story; he only ever âtellsâ it. And even then, itâs not his story anymore. Heâs narrating his own erasure, because he gets his last real words in The World Was Wide Enough, and those words are him admitting he was wrong.
And thatâs what makes Washington On Your Side song so interesting!! Jefferson and Madison are supposed to be Burrâs allies here, but even they operate on an axis of action and conviction that Burr doesnât share. Heâs standing there throwing in little snide comments about Hamilton while Jefferson is literally narratively outgrowing him in real time.
Meanwhile, Burr spends the whole show pretending heâs the âreasonableâ one, but his neutrality is actually cowardice. By the time he acts, heâs too late, and the action he does take (the duel) is the one that finally destroys him. He never learns how to take action with convictionâonly in retaliation.
idk i just find it so fascinating that in washington on your side, burr finally joins a âsideâ â and yet the song quietly exposes that heâs still the odd one out. even among people who supposedly agree with him, heâs still the guy watching from the sidelines, waiting for it.
