2020 America is still vulnerable to the dangers George Washington warned of in 1797
Some are subverting the institutions Washington helped create to undermine confidence in the vote and invalidate Joe Biden's win. They won't succeed.
We Americans traditionally celebrate the birth of our democracy on July 4, commemorating the day in 1776 when the Founders signed the
Declaration of Independence. This document was a remarkable assertion of the primacy of the people over their government for the first time in recorded history.
Arguably, though, the United States’ future as a democratic republic was only cemented much later, on
March 4, 1797, when John Adams was sworn in as George Washington’s successor. Some Founders, including
Alexander Hamilton, did not want to
limit presidential tenure, and Washington could have stayed on. Instead, he made a decision to decline a third term and return home to Mount Vernon.
If you have not read
Washington’s Farewell Address, in which he declared his intention to step away, you should, particularly at this fraught moment. It’s as if he could see through the centuries to November 2020.
Using power to destroy democracy
He railed against regionalism and partisanship, against “ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens,” against those who open the door to foreign influence and “mislead public opinion.” He warned against the rise of “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men” who “subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards” the very democratic systems that first put them into office.
Above all, he elevated the rule of law and vigilant protection of our constitutional processes, cautioning that “all obstructions to the execution of the laws … with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive” of the people’s prerogative, and indeed are “of fatal tendency.”
He knew where the dangers lurked and was remarkably prescient about their eternal lure. It would be a grave mistake to assume that American democracy has become immune to the dangers of which Washington warned.
It has not. And never will.
. 