If America Is Off Track, Who Do You Trust To Get Us Back On Track?
Today, nearly 80% of Americans across all political parties and religions tell pollsters that they believe our country is on the wrong track. Is there one person that citizens from both parties could trust to tell us what is important about getting the country back on the right track? About how to preserve our democracy, and to preserve America?
Might that person be George Washington? Of course, anyone reading this post will know who George Washington was, right? He led the American Colonial Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, defeating the most powerful army in the world at the time, the British Army. H was the only President in our history NOT to be a member of ANY political party. And yet, he was almost unanimously voted as our First President twice. He could have served for life, he was still very popular. But he chose to step down after serving for 8 years, because he believed no President should serve too long, and certainly not for life, as do European monarchs.
Washington become President in 1789, concurrent with the ratification of the Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation He voluntarily left the office of President in 1797. It was said at the time that reporters and writers came from many countries in Europe to see if Washington was going to voluntarily give up the position of President, as there was no experience in history at that time of a leader, ruler, king or dictator voluntarily giving up their position of power and privilege.
During his farewell speech to the country, Washington provided warnings about the risks to preserving the liberty that the country fought so hard to achieve in the Revolutionary War. He pointed out to his fellow citizens that their hard won liberty was not guaranteed, and that preserving it would require their constant attention to and involvement in the activities of their government.
There were four specific challenges or risks that Washington spoke about in his remarks. What follows below are his own words, excerpted from the text of his Farewell Address:
1. The Risks to Unity, Liberty and Prosperity
“The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.”
“In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire.”
“One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart burnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.”
“To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable.”
2. The importance of the new Constitution in protecting our liberty, and the obligation of all citizens to follow the Constitution, until it is changed by the whole country.
“Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.”
“Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.”
3. Warnings About the Threats of Political Parties to Liberty and Unity
“Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.”
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”
“Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”
“There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.”
4. Warnings about the Corrupting Potential of Partisan Power as a Danger to Liberty and Unity
“All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.”
“However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
“It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.”
Delivered in the United States, on 19th September, 1796, by George Washington
If we trust the counsel and advise of George Washington, then it would seem the following beliefs and actions should be supported by all citizens:
1. We should understand and revere our national unity as the source of our liberty, prosperity, security and happiness. Nearly 100 years later, another great President emphasized this principle as well. President Lincoln reminded the Republican party convention that “A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.” Of course, Lincoln was repeating a quote from Jesus Christ mentioned in 3 authors of the New Testament.
2. We should view the attempts of any party leader to divide our country and undermine our unity as one of the most serious threats to our liberty, prosperity and security.
3. All citizens have a sacred obligation to follow the Constitution, as the greatest source of protection for our liberty and unity. Any changes to the Constitution should be made in accordance with the provisions for change in the Constitution, and reflect the support of the whole country.
4. The desire to consolidate and maintain power is also a most serious threat to our liberty, prosperity and security. Despite the short term benefits which might seem to result from such actions, Washington cautioned us that we must defend the separation of power and the checks and balances of the power of one branch by others, as a principle guarantor of our liberty provided by the Constitution.
If we agree to the wisdom of this counsel and advise, the question to be addressed is, HOW do we as citizens ensure that this counsel is reflected in how we are governed?
1. In the short term, we can become “single issue voters”. Make the priority of our candidate preference in 2024 on avoiding any candidate who seeks to undermine our national unity or ignore any existing obligations of our Constitution, by expressing disregard for bi-partisan governing, the only way to sustain national unity, or for the separation of powers and/or the checks and balances of the powers of their office by the other branches.
2. In the long term, we can educate ourselves about the changes to the rules and processes enacted by elected officials over the decades to determine how we could be governed more effectively, and support those changes. The Constitution defines how a government that derives its powers from the consent of the governed should be structured and how powers should be divided. But the Constitution left the making of rules and processes for governing to the elected officials themselves in each House of Congress. Those rules and processes seem to be more designed to support partisanship, special interest donors and the career self-interests of our elected officials from both parties, rather than the interests of the unity and interests of the country overall.
The feeling of most citizens that our country is on the wrong track is primarily an indictment that how we are being governed is off track, and that the rules and process of governing need to be changed. In a government that was created to derive its powers from the consent of the governed, shouldn’t we the citizens be involved in defining the rules and processes for how we are governed?
The book, “American Turning Point: Repairing and Restoring Our Constitutional Republic” was written to provide an initial starting point for a national discussion of what changes, what “Citizen Rules”, should replace the rules enacted by elected officials. Please review the proposed set of “Citizen Rules” at www.citizenrules.org and see if these rules reflect the counsel of George Washington and the warnings of Abraham Lincoln, and might help restore our national unity, better protect our liberty and prosperity, and put our country back on the right track.