It's a Family Affair
I guess I'm a bit of a traditionalist at heart. I miss Washington's Birthday.
Since 1948, historians have consistently ranked three presidents among the country's best--George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt. Ironically, if FDR's mother delayed delivery for another 48 hours, all three men would have been born in February.
When I was a school boy, teachers spent most of February giving both Washington and Lincoln the attention they deserved. These were great men, who deserved their own holidays. Lumping them together with mediocrities, such as Benjamin Harrison, Franklin Pierce, and Warren Harding, just for the sake of a unified presidential holiday and countless automobile ads, seems to be a travesty.
In a lifetime filled with moments that defined the United States and its future, one of Washington's best decisions is often overlooked. He declined an opportunity to run for a third term. He understood the danger of dynastic rule.
American voters may be fascinated by political families, but very few have had any staying power on the national scene, because we remain deeply suspicious of them. For most of my adult life, two families have dominated the presidency--the Clintons and the Bushes--and Hillary is learning first hand the dangers of assuming tacit "inheritance" of the nation's highest office due to your last name (see Ted Kennedy's failed effort to unseat Jimmy Carter in 1980).
The legacy of the Bush-Clinton-Bush years has been a dynastic dynamic defined by division. Those voters who flock to Obama see a charismatic figure who trumps his shortcomings in experience with a message of unity and civility. Clinton tries to the frame the argument around competence, rather than pretty speeches. Dukakis tried that same message against George the First, and failed.
In his farewell address, George Washington, the only president not to belong to a specific political party, warned against the perils of partisanship. "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," he said. "It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection."
Obama views himself as the purple candidate. Washington, who devised the original Purple Heart medal, probably had a fondness for that color, too.
Since 1948, historians have consistently ranked three presidents among the country's best--George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt. Ironically, if FDR's mother delayed delivery for another 48 hours, all three men would have been born in February.
When I was a school boy, teachers spent most of February giving both Washington and Lincoln the attention they deserved. These were great men, who deserved their own holidays. Lumping them together with mediocrities, such as Benjamin Harrison, Franklin Pierce, and Warren Harding, just for the sake of a unified presidential holiday and countless automobile ads, seems to be a travesty.
In a lifetime filled with moments that defined the United States and its future, one of Washington's best decisions is often overlooked. He declined an opportunity to run for a third term. He understood the danger of dynastic rule.
American voters may be fascinated by political families, but very few have had any staying power on the national scene, because we remain deeply suspicious of them. For most of my adult life, two families have dominated the presidency--the Clintons and the Bushes--and Hillary is learning first hand the dangers of assuming tacit "inheritance" of the nation's highest office due to your last name (see Ted Kennedy's failed effort to unseat Jimmy Carter in 1980).
The legacy of the Bush-Clinton-Bush years has been a dynastic dynamic defined by division. Those voters who flock to Obama see a charismatic figure who trumps his shortcomings in experience with a message of unity and civility. Clinton tries to the frame the argument around competence, rather than pretty speeches. Dukakis tried that same message against George the First, and failed.
In his farewell address, George Washington, the only president not to belong to a specific political party, warned against the perils of partisanship. "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," he said. "It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection."
Obama views himself as the purple candidate. Washington, who devised the original Purple Heart medal, probably had a fondness for that color, too.
posted by msockol at 12:00 AM
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