The State of the Country
Did you know George Washington was probably the most active President we ever had? He was a general and he was the type of general that launched into battles on his horse with his men running and charging right behind him. Many times he rode into withering fire, bullets flying all around him, and had the force of will to lead a rag-tag, shambles of an army to victory against the major world power at the time. People forget just how powerful Britain was back then. They had the world’s most powerful navy and, in that day and age, that was the equivalent to being the nation with the A-bomb.
Washington created what has become the modern Presidency. There was no precedent for him. He had to completely wing the whole thing. He had to even decide what everyone should call him. Your majesty? Your Highness? He told them to call him Mr. President. There was no guarantee at that time that this country would even survive. He was confident, great at recognizing talent and hiring the right people and many people, to this day, say his Cabinet was the finest the country has ever seen. Not bad and hardly the stuffy, stiff-backed person you see on the dollar bill. Reportedly the man even loved to dance and he was the biggest distiller of alcohol in the country at the time.
Each of those men stood for something. I cannot imagine a greater group of powerful personalities in one place at the same time. Jefferson was there with his intelligence and feelings of superiority. All of the names are amazing to think about like Franklin and Hamilton and Adams and Madison. They look like a bunch of dandies in the portraits with their powdered wigs and fancy shoes but they were all very remarkable men. Most of them were highly educated and highly intelligent. None of them knew if the country would rise of fall. All of them really did take a risk by signing their names to the Declaration of Independence. All of them helped piece together the Constitution of this country.
They were powerful. They were smart. They were flawed. They argued. They had personal foibles. Some owned slaves. Many were womanizers and heavy-drinkers. Some were terrible parents.
I wonder what they would think of what this country has become? Would they approve? I have my doubts Thomas Jefferson would approve with the things that this government has been doing lately. He was very sure that less government was better. I think even Washington would shake his head if he were alive today and able to comprehend wire-tapping and holding people without trial for years and years. I think they would wonder about committing troops in battle without a clear plan and without and official declaration of war.
I have a feeling many of them would find the debates we have over religion amusing. I also wonder what they would say about the people who so passionately argue about the amendment for the right to bear arms. At the time the idea was that there should be a well-armed militia ready to defend the country at any time. Would they agree that this means people should be able to buy assault rifles supposedly to deer hunt? Would they agree that this means you should be allowed to carry pistols in a shoulder holster while walking around a city street?
A lot has changed in those hundreds of years, of course. There are weapons in the hands of people the Founding Fathers could never have conceived of, save in their worst nightmares. I cannot imagine what even seeing a skyscraper would do to their brains were it possible to somehow transport them from their past to our present. I bet many of them would have been bloggers, considering how many of them wrote letters and published newspapers. I bet somehow, Franklin would have invented just about everything we use or be able to improve upon the things we have now. He seems like the type.
Would they even be able to recognize the government we have now as the one they helped create? I know many of them were vehemently opposed to the idea of political parties at all. How would they react to a country so horribly divided? Would they understand the idea of a red state and a blue state?
I recently saw a special on television that talked about how when you believe something and surround yourself with others who believe the same thing you usually end up going to the extreme left or right. So, the idea is that if you tend to be a moderate liberal, but you surround yourself with other liberals, before you know it you are an extreme liberal. Same goes for conservatives. As such, it would seem that this country is so divided that it will be exceedingly difficult to bring it all back together again.
It was once said that a “house divided against itself cannot stand.” Our country has managed to remain divided on a lot of things and still remain standing. We even survived a civil war. Still, somehow we look even more divided these days than when Lincoln was in office. Somehow the reason for that divide has become more muddled than it was even then. At that time it was about slavery and a state’s right to decide upon its validity. These days the issues are murky and involve things like morality. Morality is the most ridiculous thing to be divided on because there is no way to achieve a consensus on them. Especially when the morality issues involve sexual orientation, abortion, gun control and what constitutes a marriage. It becomes nearly impossible not to bring religion into such debates. Bringing religion into the whole thing only makes everything more murky.
In the end, despite the many flaws in our country and system of government it definitely seems like the best system. Nothing manmade can ever be perfect and I doubt our system ever will be. It’s great to be in a country, however, that allows you to criticize the government. I just hope it stays that way as the current administration seems to try to suggest that by criticizing you are committing treason.
We should debate. We should always debate. No one should ever just trust the government implicitly and I don’t care which party is in office. Without that debate I don’t think this country would be what the Founding Fathers intended at all. Being patriotic, by it’s very nature, means questioning authority and the government. Our Founding Fathers did and they risked dying for it.
Can we do any less?
