George Washington was a brave and passionate young man who by will and desire controlled his internal fires. He made himself the stern man who could lead a new nation during and after the Revolution that brought the nation into being. I am reading a Pulitzer-Prize-winning biography of George Washington by Ron Chernow. The more I read, the more I admire the man who was the symbol of America before there was a capital, a flag or a national government.
And with each page, the contrast between the man who brought America into being and the dissolute dumpy draft dodger in the White House is more vivid. Washington was a colonel in the Virginia militia during his early twenties. He was celebrated for heroism in England and the colonies for his bravery during the Seven Year’s War: at the same age our current President had draft deferments for invisible bone spurs.
When Washington first took command of the continental army in Cambridge, there was an outbreak of smallpox in Boston where the British held the city. The British using 18th Century biological warfare, sent boatloads of infected Boston residents across the Charles River to Cambridge to spread the disease. Washington, who had taken the crude vaccine himself, ordered his soldiers to be vaccinated. He carefully quarantined the infected Bostonians sent across the Charles River.
Today, the anti-vaxxer in chief appointed a lying vaccine skeptic to be the head of Health and Human Services. In a less-known act, Trump re-instated soldiers who refused the Covid vaccine while on duty. Returning to the ranks soldiers who refused orders will make the US military exactly the kind of “losers” he said happened under the previous President. Washington knew discipline (obeying orders) made the army effective. Whining idiots who refuse a vaccine could refuse to fight. How much worse is combat than a Covid shot?
Martha Washington traveled from Virginia to wherever her husband was during terrible winters such as the one in 1976-77 to be with her husband. Martha was terrified of the vaccine which nearly claimed the life of her son, but George insisted she be vaccinated to be with the army. She took the vaccine, was ill for a month and recovered. I think soldiers should be at least as brave as George Washington’s wife.
Washington had an eye for good leaders. The best men in his army rose rapidly through the ranks. Generals Green and Knox notably rose rapidly to important commands as did young officers who caught Washington’s attention. As against the British army with its deep class distinctions, Washington’s army was a meritocracy, bringing the best to the top. Trump has appointed a Star Wars bar scene of misfits to corrupt and destroy the government. Notable in the inventory of idiots is talk-show-host Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense. Will this moron even be sober if Russia attacks Europe?
Can America survive this onslaught of mediocrity? I don’t know. When we survived the Civil War, Americans still admired courage and thought the President should be a leader of great character. Last year America no longer cared about character. A mean mediocrity was their pick to make America great again. Not even 100 days into utopia, the economy is tanking because the 20th century man in the White House is re-instating the tariff wars of the 1920s. How did that turn out?
Stupid is not only infinite, but bipartisan. Even as I despair of the descent from the dignity of Washington to immoral mutant Trump, I know that people who agree with me about Trump will howl about Washington, Jefferson and other of the founders of America who owned slaves. Whatever their flaws, the nation they founded eventually fought its bloodiest war to end slavery.
The critics of Washington and America right now are protesting in favor of Jihad on and around college campuses and major cities. The most pathetic of them are Gays for Gaza. Only Israel in the entire Middle East would allow gay people to live in safety, to live at all. In Gaza or any Jihad land, gay people, whatever their pronouns, would be stoned by a gleeful, hateful mob doing the will of their hateful god. Pro-Hamas is not less vile than Pro-Trump. And both are willing to sacrifice their followers without a second thought.
