In his farewell address, George Washington gave advice and warnings to help the citizens of the United States keep the Constitution and their liberty. He warned of "overgrown military establishments," political parties, favoritism for a foreign nation, change to the Constitution based on "mere hypothesis and opinion", encroachment of one department of government upon another, undermining religion, piling up debt, unwillingness to pay taxes, and permanent alliances with foreign nations. But Washington's first, and maybe strongest, warning was of "internal and external enemies" that would weaken the citizens' bond with their national government.
The unity of Government, which constitutes you one people, … is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize. But … it is easy to foresee, that … 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 ...
We can, I think, find the internal type of such enemies among the leaders of the modern conservative movement, from the "Reagan Revolution" to today's Teabag Party congressmen. Among those in that movement that have acted to weaken the citizens' bond with their national government are:
- President Ronald Reagan, who, after gaining office by treasonous plot, said, "[G]overnment is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem," and went on to sell public assets dirt cheap, turn CIA propaganda methods against the American public, and run a dirty administration with many officials convicted of crimes, or leaving office after charged with misconduct.
- Grover Norquist, a Republican leader who said: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." Norquist has hamstrung the federal government by getting almost every Republican congressman to sign his anti-tax pledge, which forbids boosting government revenue by raising income tax rates or closing loopholes. And Norquist has helped damage the regular give-and-take of legislatures throughout the nation by driving the Republican Party to take a hard-line. He said: "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape." And: "We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship."
- Senator Ted Cruz, a Teabag Party leader, who, near the beginning of his recent 21-hour Senate floor talkathon, said:
"[T]he problem [in Washington] is bigger than a continuing resolution [to fund the government]. It is bigger than ObamaCare. It is even bigger than the budget. The most fundamental problem ... is that the men and women in Washington aren't listening [to the people]."
And what did Cruz (but not the polls) say that the people want "the men and women in Washington" to hear? It's: "Stop Obamacare." Thus, by his logic, stopping the nation's healthcare law also becomes bigger than funding the government! And so Cruz backs the teabag-led Republican House congressmen in their strategy to undo the healthcare law, using their powers to shutdown the federal government, and to forbid it to pay its bills-come-due, as bargaining chips.
Of fevered factions, such as the teabag Congressmen, that would damage the regular functioning of democratic government, George Washington gave a special warning:
... 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.
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.
Post Script
George Washington did not expect that his advice would be strongly followed, but hoped that it might be helpful to his compatriots from time-to-time.
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course, which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.
(From The Paragraph.) [Sources & Notes]
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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2013