3 Pieces of Advice: George Washingon Farewell Speech
Well, I’ve been studying for the CSET (an exam that tests subject matter comptency in a field that one would want to teach), and U.S. History is the midst of my current readings.
I had to quietly laugh when I read the three pieces of advice given by George Washington, in his farewell address:
- Avoid political parties based on geographic boundaries.
- Avoid permanent alliances with foreign powers.
- Safeguard the ability of America to pay its national debt.
Now you may see why I mustered into a secluded laugh. It’s like a game of telephone. The main statement has been not only skewed, but forgotten and abandoned.
Let’s take a look at each.
Avoid political parties based on geographic boundaries.
I was a bit confused at first, as to what this really meant. It seems that he was warning ‘against bitter partisanship in domestic politics, and called for men to move beyond partisanship and serve the common good’. Serve the common good? Ha. If only he knew of the massive corruption caused by self-interests, by all – local, state, and national politicians, he would be devastated in his pronounced legacy. One word: Bailouts. Accepted and pushed through self-interests and personal debts of politicians, and the remarkable partisanship of this, that is the driving force in its establishment into law. It’s no longer about The People. It’s about how much which industry helped a specific politician’s campaign (via cold-hard cash), and how hard you can lock up the congressional votes through the buddy-buddy system of partisanship.
Next,
Avoid permanent alliances with foreign powers.
Isn’t that what we actually strive to do now? Form and maintain permanent alliances with other countries? Isn’t that the job of “secretary of state”? At least, it is now. But when George Washington established this office, the duties were as follows (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_State):
On July 27, 1789, George Washington signed a congressional bill into law reauthorizing an executive Department of Foreign Affairs headed by a Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Congress then passed another law giving certain additional domestic responsibilities to the new Department and changing its name to the Department of State and the name of head of the department to the Secretary of State, and Washington approved this act on September 15, 1789. The new domestic duties assigned to the newly renamed department were receipt, publication, distribution, and preservation of laws of the United States, custody of the Great Seal of the United States, authentication of copies and preparation of commissions of executive branch appointments, and finally custody of the books, papers, and records of the Continental Congress including the Constitution itself and the Declaration of Independence.
There was a reason why George Washington denounced entry into solid foreign friendships. He did not want the United States to become attached or dependent on a foreign source. He wanted us to ‘concentrate on American interests’. He did promote ‘friendship and commerce, but warned against long-term alliances’ that would involve us into foriegn affairs too deeply, and unable to get out.
And,
Safeguard the ability of America to pay its national debt
I think the only thing that’s safe, is it’s safe to say that our current national debt, far exceeds our ability to pay it off anytime in the near future, or our great-great grandchildren’s futures. This debt of ours, only magnifies our weakness and our inability to protect our country from those who do not want to see us prosper. Bailout bills? STOP THEM PLEASE, before our country is up for sale, due to owing more than we are worth to those who control the source of our debts.
