George Washington’s Prescient Warning About Political Parties

Political news observers have no holidays, and that’s particularly true for stories about the 2024 presidential election.

To date, the only declared major party candidate is former president Donald Trump, who’s running for the third time. While Trump has several advantages over any potential opponents, there’s the potential for a large field of possible challengers to emerge in 2023.

The most talked-about contenders are either making subtle moves to raise their profiles or are huddling with family, friends and advisors about a possible run. At the tip of the potential Trump challengers is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who, according to The Washington Post, is making appeals to what he thinks are issues that motivate Republican primary voters. And DeSantis intends to do so through legislative action. The reason? To run on his record:

The coming session is expected to continue clashes with corporations, with Republicans trying again to pass a DeSantis-championed bill on the unauthorized use of consumer data and taking aim at ESG by setting new rules for the investment of state funds. Florida officials recently said they would pull state assets from ESG proponent BlackRock, a major asset-management firm, which denounced the move as political.

Florida’s current 15-week ban on abortion is less restrictive than many other Republican-controlled states’ policies, and DeSantis has been vague in public about what further restrictions on abortion he would support — a potential vulnerability in a GOP primary. At a news conference this month, however, DeSantis expressed openness to a “heartbeat bill” ban at roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

Not exactly a rebirth of Reaganism. But compared to Trump’s populist/personality culty goulash, it’s a major step back toward sensibility.

That doesn’t mean primary voters will buy whatever DeSantis – or Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence or any other personality – is selling. As I’ve written before: Trump must be considered the frontrunner for the 2024 nomination, and only GOP primary voters can change that.

Meanwhile, on Team Blue…President Joe Biden is supposed to make his intentions about running again public sometime in the next few weeks. The smart money is bettering he runs:

Biden, who was already the oldest president in US history, turned 80 last month, fueling questions over his fitness to run again and potentially serve another term. But Biden has brushed aside those worries, and cited only his family or a surprise development, such as a health crisis, as likely to dissuade from from running.

Because the driving principle of big league national politics isn’t a policy, an idea or even a principle. It’s ambition. George Washington warned America about this in 1796:

“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

President Washington was right then and is still right today. Guess that’s one more reason why he’s the best to ever occupy the highest office in the land.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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