Why we ignore Washington as statesman

I just realized why the main thing George Washington is praised for nowadays is his dislike of power, whether it was his dramatic (and highly orchestrated by himself) resignation as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, or his equally dramatic resignation as President, or his lack of desire to assume power when it was offered to him, or his supposed reluctance to wield it once he actually held it. While that aspect of Washington is true up to a point, to portray it as his dominant trait is a total distortion. Washington was America’s pre-eminent political figure for 25 years, and a master at the active use of power. Yet this side of him—the things he actually did as America’s leading general, statesman, and Founding Father—is largely ignored. The reason for this is that modern Americans believe in democracy and equality, which makes them uncomfortable with the idea of power and authority, especially in the case of a man who dominated the country to the degree that Washington did. Therefore the only way they can feel comfortable admiring George Washington is by making him seem as anti-power as themselves.

(Drafted September 30, 2003.)

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David H. writes:

This is an excellent little essay you have posted. It illustrates perfectly why Washington is praised only (I have heard several feminists and other leftists condemn him, of course) for being “anti-authority”: liberals hate and fear the strength of character and tenacious resolve of such men, but the slightly less leftist among them still feel a need to praise ol’ George. So they grasp at the shortest hair in his great white coiffure.

It is this very hatred, fear, desperate avoidance and rejection of great things past that has led us to many of the desperate predicaments about which you have written. That there is a rise in outright treason, flagrant immorality, feminism, all forms of homosexuality and other aberrant behaviors, mindless destructive “rebellion”, the rejection of America as a distinct nation, persecution of Christianity, the embracing of totalitarian evils (Marxism and Islam, for example), is no longer surprising when one realizes the true meaning of liberalism and the inherent weakness and decay that it leaves in its ruinous wake. In fact, it is a routine observation. As physicists say, nature abhors a vacuum; remove our great traditions and something will fill the void. However the “something” is turning out to be what the blind followers of the liberal piper could not and would not imagine, even in their worst nightmares.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 09, 2007 02:29 PM | Send