By building the railroad Flagler gained rights to most of Florida's east coast beach property. So in a sense, Miami was a giant public works project.
Are we going to be willing to do the same for space exploration?
Republicans wanted a payback. That's fine. Every colonial backer wants that. The argument could have been fusion. We'd extract helium on the moon. We'd also have the ability for meta-materials fabrication there given the weaker gravity. All of this could have been wrapped up in the Republican's favorite spending bucket: war readiness. Few argued for that at the time.
The Democrats did what you said, tried to keep their plantations populated through bread and circuses. They lacked the ability to see how colonization would provide jobs and reduce crime by allowing people that don't fit well in society an outlet like the US had with its Western frontier.
At this point the US is too indebted to support such a program, at least at a governmental level. I think our only hope is private parities establishing their own colonies in order to create meta-materials from mined asteroids.
I have never seen this interpretation expressed by anyone else, ever.
I’m not sure that criminals and other social misfits would be welcome in space exploration / colonization. Space is a harsh environment that requires cooperative behavior just to stay alive. Colonization occurred in places where there was oxygen, food and water. The main skills needed were very basic survival skills, and a willingness to murder the non-European (and sometimes European) locals that got in the way.
We are a long way away from the point where we could tolerate a showdown at high noon in space, though that might make for a profitable summer blockbuster.
I hope we can find a more humane way to deal with our troubled fellow humans than to send them on suicide missions.
Do note that many colonies stated not by people living there, but by people going to "get rich" while being supported from home, and they left infrastructure behind that the latter colonists used.
We can heavy lift the manufacturing systems to the moon if we use 3D printing and accept risk of death and colonial collapse. It would be spartan and difficult, but I think we could do it. The meager printing would give rise to more advanced machines capable of manufacturing for materials and forms.
My present thesis is that the government lacks the vision and fortitude to colonize any celestial body. So they won’t land grant.