Originally Posted by
Dachshund
I like to think that the United States really began with its remarkable leader, George Washington. He was the great, Patriot military Commander and whose courage on the battlefield led the rebel forces to victory against the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War in 1783.He was also a great statesman - tirelessly working to creation the original US Constitution. He ultimately succeeded, presiding over the Convention of 1787, which established both the US Constitution and a Federal Government for the United States. I like George Washington because he was the first great American soul; the nations first, Republican/Conservative US President, and he would still be recognizable as such were he in the Oval Office today, in 2021 His Republican/Conservative political values were simple: he believed in a Republic of free citizens, with a governments based on consent and established to protects the rights of life, liberty and property. George Washington is he is a lot like PRESIDENT TRUMP here, who I also think was/is a truly great, American President.
You might think, what on Earth could George Washington and Donald Trump have in common as American Presidents ? ( I mean besides such trivial facts as they: were both very masculine in terms of their psychological make-up/behavioral traits (kind of like General George Patton - if you know what I mean - and make sensible adjustments for their different American, historical circumstances; they were both tall, robust, males with large feet; both had crazy, red hair - though Washington often powdered his hair white, as that the fashion in his time ; were both known to completely lose their temper when frustrated by dickheads; were both [B]MAJOR party-animals who loved to boogey and LOVED to hit-on beautiful, young women when they in their younger years - I'm not sure though if George actually did any "p**sy - grabbing" or "goosing as that kind of stuff was pretty much taboo at genteel formal dances and Assembly Room socials in the latter half of the 18th-century ) Anyway, as Presidents here's what I think they had in common...
George Washington lived in an era full of brilliant men; "The Age of Reason" (or the "Enlightenment"). Washington actually died in 1799 which was pretty much right at the end of the "Enlightenment." The "Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that took place in Western Europe (including England) in the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of its more famous thinkers were: Immanuel Kant; David Hume; Denis Diderot and Wilheim Leibniz. A number of America's Founding Fathers ( Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and others) were strongly influenced by their studies of Enlightenment writers like John Locke, in particular, Tom Paine, Adam Smith, Charles de Montesquie, etc).
So, quite a few of the Founding Fathers, were extremely well-educated, very well-read, scholarly and intelligent men who lived during the "Enlightenment" and were very conversant with all the new, sophisticated thinking in fields such as: political philosophy; ethics; political economy, philosophy, science, etc; that was flowing out of Western Europe. As you know, a number of these Founders wrote many long and eloquent essays, published dissertations on different academic topics, sophisticated textbooks. Thomas Jefferson even wrote a detailed essay in which he set out his biological theory of why exactly it was that Negroes had black skin (!).
Washington did not ever spend much time writing books or essays or pamphlets about abstract, philosophical, legal theories or dissertations on the nature of politics or the human condition and the like. Washington probably had not read all (or even much) of John Lock's political theory, (which Jefferson had used to write the famous principles of the "Declaration of Independence" in 1776). Washington, however did pick up a very deep, innate understanding of the main ideas that the American Founding was grounded on, no doubt through his frequent discussions with other Founding Fathers and colonists. Washington understood the moral concepts of "natural rights" and "Natural Law", the idea of the "social contract", the notion of liberty as distinct from license, the doctrine of "the separation of powers", and so on. He just wasn't the kind of man who was inclined to sit and cogitate about them or write down his abstract reflections on the issues for hours at a time (I mean, there's nothing necessarily wrong with doing this, if you are, say, a cerebral type of person - like an academic/a professor working in a university or college - who is trying IN GOOD FAITH to pursue 'the Truth" for its own sake, but Washington just wasn't a "dorky" kind of guy !).
What was so remarkably different about George Washington was that he took the core founding IDEAS of men like: John Locke; Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Tom Paine, etc; AND MADE THEM HAPPEN George Washington fully embodied the the key principles and values of the American Founding. He LIVED them, and REALISED THEM, so that they were not just words on a page, or a lofty discussion taking place at a dinner party about the probability of a Patriot Revolution. Whether it was as a military strategist, or as courageous leader rallying his troops to save the nation when the Patriot cause seemed doomed in the freezing winter of late December, 1776. Or whether it was creating the US Constitution - making it something that existed, something REAL Or whether it was BEING a good President - "walking the walk" - and taking on the responsibility. not "talking the (worthless) talk" And most importantly; doing for the right reasons DONALD TRUMP was/ is like WASHINGTON in this. Trump doesn't want to give tedious lectures or write scholarly books on Conservative philosophy in American politics or Geopolitics or the US economy. He wanted to DO and MAKE HAPPEN lots of big and important things that would be good for the country. AND HE DID. In fact, Donald Trump accomplished SO MANY good things in so many people in so many major domains of American life: from tax-cuts to decreased unemployment rates (for all minority groups and women)" to energy independence to USMCA to the "Abraham Accords" to "Operation Warp Speed", it would literally take pages to list all of his achievements - not because you're a covert, Black, Marxist criminal with a huge "chip on your shoulder" - like Barack Obama - who went to work stealthily sabotaging American society because HE KNEW everything great about it was the product of a superior White Anglo culture, and that fact really "REALLY BURNED HIM UP" Or not because you were a failed, establishment DC SWAMP - DWELLING, Democrat "BUM-BOY" for fifty years; a lying, unscrupulous, corrupt, pervert who wanted to show that he could become President (even though he knew he was afflicted and mentally unfit for the job, and even though he knew he would have to CHEAT - to rob a better man of the job).
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