Volume 9, Issue 36
The President stressed that, “Our security, our prosperity, and our very freedoms are interconnected, in my view, as never before.” His statement, although true, brought little comfort to world leaders suspicious of the United States’ intentions and skeptical of the United States’ resolve.
In his farewell address to the country, President George Washington laid out a template for young America’s government identifying dangers that could be ruinous to the nation’s calling. Much like a father warns his son about errant behavior or association with unsavory people, President Washington warned his country with incredibly acute prophetic advice.
Included among his many profound admonishments were: reject geographical divisions, avoid foreign entanglements, refuse to accumulate debt, pay off appropriate debt generationally, maintain free trade, free enterprise and private ownership, and do not allow society to follow political parties for cultural identity.
Washington’s advice delivered on September 16, 1796, is as viable and critical today for our security, our prosperity, and our very freedoms that are interconnected as never before. What’s missing from the current equation is America’s commitment to unity in moral identity.
Political parties have diminished to the point that they do not exist in the United States as declarations of political character. Parties today exist only as registration vehicles to deliver votes and sources of fundraising for political messaging. Party platforms have no role in guiding American culture today. There was a time when the parties provided the greater tent of comprehensive political ideology. To be a member of the Republican or Democratic party was a statement of political identity. Currently, very few people relate to a party base based upon a party philosophy or political persuasion.
The absence of political party structure has taken the guardrails off any pathway designed for constructive debate. The void has been filled by the mob rule of the far right and the far left. The average American offended by strident rhetoric finds themselves wandering in a dysfunctional partisan political wasteland. They are experiencing a national political identity crisis subject to the worst fears of their imagination.
President Washington was worried that political parties would divide us. Yet, like a family that would never condemn each other, he hoped that America would maintain commitment to its moral destiny for unity.
Morality cannot be quantified without religious beliefs. For, without a calling greater than oneself, morality is simply impacted by the emotion of current events. President Washington was very clear to the country on this element of American character.
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
In addition to the maintenance of a moral foundation, President Washington’s advice to America was to beware of foreign entanglements. What he meant was that there is no reason to take on the inherent conflict of other countries unrelated to the purpose and moral vision of the United States. Just as dangerous is for the United States to call for world unity without any moral identity of national purpose. Washington opined:
“As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils? Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.”
As to President Biden’s call for world unity, the United States cannot lead by committee. It’s appropriate to seek the input of other nations to address world problems. It is an exercise in futility to ask the committee, in and of itself, to determine solutions and set the strategy of implementation. The United States must lead the committee pursuant to our cultural identity and moral values for the common good, lest we become “such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.”
The world is in tumultuous trouble, politically, socially, and economically. Leaders instinctively sense the severity of the situation. Many are overwhelmed. There is no need of convincing them that the trouble is life-threatening.
In fairness to President Biden, calling out China as a source of unsettling aggression is not only appropriate but on-point courageous. Striking a deal with Great Britain at the expense of the French to supply sophisticated nuclear submarines to Australia makes perfect sense. Not only are the British still the standard for naval operations, they are our strategic partner.
During the arms negotiations between President Reagan and President Gorbachev, the Soviets demanded that all British nuclear missiles carried by submarine be counted as part of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The statement by the Soviets not denied by the U.S. was that, at time of war, a protocol was in place for the U.S. and British nuclear submarine fleets to become one in strategic operation. Nothing personal, but the French diesel submarine does not fit in the comprehensive defense of the Pacific Rim theater. That being said, the British may have been the leverage for the decision.
Going forward, the world is desperate for American leadership in producing a predictable result
for the problems facing the world today. America cannot lead if it falls farther down the rabbit hole, defaulting to a nebulous identity, politically maligned by mob rule, and led by a president who seeks to lead by committee.
President Washington loved his country so much that, for the good of building successor stability, he refused a third term. He left this word for those who succeeded him: believe in freedom, support the Constitution, and remain a religious nation to enhance morality.
Morality encompasses mutual respect for each other. To truly desire universal pursuit of happiness is only possible when one believes in the greater call of God. Such belief establishes an umbrella under which all rights are equal, inalienable, and to be protected.
Without religious moral authority, mutual respect devolves into self-centeredness, eliminating the possible societal reality that we are all equal in importance and priority.
President Washington’s words reverberate throughout eternity.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?