Mark Alexander: The Democrat Platform: Foment Fear, Anger, Hatred, and Division

In his extraordinarily forward-looking 1796 “Farewell Address,” President George Washington recommended for our “solemn contemplation” and “frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection” and “which appears to me all important to the permanency of your felicity as a people.”

Among the most notable advice he offered was a warning about the danger of those who would seek to divide the nation in order to empower their own partisan interests. He noted that the “love of power and proneness to abuse it” would result in “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled” political leaders who would “organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party.”

He warned that their “foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation” would “usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests,” and that we should “distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken” our nation’s bonds.

Here, Washington’s advice is as enduring as his legacy. The current partisan political tensions are more troubling than in any period since the 1960s, and his words are applicable.

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