For as long as I can remember I’ve always been drawn to history. I know many find it dry and boring, but I find it exciting and interesting to see how people used to live, how they thought, what they felt, what they believed, what they struggled with, how they succeeded, what they feared, and ultimately in the end, how very similar they are to us today and most importantly…..what we can learn from them so that we can avoid the mistakes of the past and do better today and in the future.
We live in a time where no role model past or present is sacred anymore. We have evolved enough and are sophisticated enough as a civilization to realize that no person is perfect. We all have our flaws, vices, demons, and walk-in closets full of mistakes and bad errors in judgment.
So keeping all that in mind, I realize he has his modern day critics for having owned slaves among other flaws, but I’m going to gush very unapologetically about one of my all-time favorite Presidents, George Washington, for a moment.
Not only was he America’s first and really only centrist President, he was also our ONLY truly non-partisan President. He made a concerted effort, with a full realization that his actions would be judged by generations to come, to govern from the center, and to treat all sides equally and respectfully even if he personally sympathized or agreed with one over the other.
When our nation was born on July 4th, 1776, there were no political parties. No members of political parties fought or died to earn our nation’s freedom. 11 years later after winning our freedom, there were no members of political parties at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. When Washington became president in 1789 there were no political parties. For the first 3 years of his time in office there were no political parties and yet America survived and thrived.
And then it started. Financially well off people started the Federalist Party to back the program being put forth by Alexander Hamilton. And then soon after Thomas Jefferson and his supporters started the Democratic-Republican Party (which would be shortened to just ‘Democrats’ after 1828).
In his farewell address in 1796, President Washington famously warned us to avoid going down the road of partisan politics. I’m paraphrasing here, but he basically said that political parties tend to make mountains out of molehills, make things seem like they are urgent or huge problems to further their own agenda, and over time they become a form of despotism of their own, potentially weakening the country in the process of their fight for supremacy over each other.
For 227 years we have not followed his sage advice on that, but I believe we are beginning, albeit slowly and painfully, to move into a post-partisan politics era in our country. Or maybe it’s just that is what I want us to do so badly that I can taste it that it feels like that. Whichever the case may be, I truly hope that is what happens, and sooner rather than later.
Perry Waag 