Thursday, July 21, 2011

George Washington: The First, one of the Least, and one of the Best

George Washington, Leading Commander of the American Colonial Forces, did not want to be President. Yet he was universally regarded by both Congress and countrymen as the most fitting leader for the fledgling Republic.

In fact, when the Framers of the Constitution drafted the Article delineating the role of the Chief Executive in the New Federal Government, everyone tacitly agreed that the first one to fill the role would be General Washington, who at the time was serving as the President of the Constitutional Convention.

He did not want the job, pure and simple. Like any citizen soldier, he wanted to serve his country, then retire to his estate and live out the rest of his days in quiet contemplation and domestic tranquility. Despite his innate resistance to the call, Washington accepted the election and became the United States' first President.

He was the perfect man for the job. His reluctance to take on the immense leadership was not only well-founded, but expedient for the young nation. As an unwilling executive, he did little, expected little, and allowed little beyond what the Constitution would allow.

A consitutional President, he limited his role as chief executive. His limited role was aided in part by the lack of disernible political parties (despite the schism in domestic policy which emerged in his cabinet between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton).

What this aging Republic needs now more than ever is a Chief Executive who lacks the outrageous ambition which has exploded the role and influence of the Presidency at the expense of Congress. This proposition is all the more challenging because the current political process has evolved to the point where anyone who wished to President must promote himself extensively. In order to garner the popular vote, he must pitch popular positions in monosyllabic sound bites, all of which put pressure on the elected winner to expand his role in Washington.

Despite the enormous hindrances which either discourage the adherents of limited government or force presidential hopefuls to compromise worth constitutional principles, the reckless spending of the past thirty years plus the growing dissatisfaction of the people with a large dysfunctional government may induce candidates to persuade voters to the need for a more restrained president, less compromised Congress, and more limited government.

In other words, a man with the reluctant spirit to lead, like George Washington, may emerge once again on the scene, content to be one of the least of Presidents, and in turn be one of the Greatest.

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