I’m not judging it as being bad, just without the political experience of the 20th and 21st centuries.
It is like George Washington saying that political parties are bad because it wasn’t thought of when writing the Constitution even though that was obviously what was going to happen.
George Washington didn’t like the idea of political parties because he was scared shitless by the then current French Revolution. He didn’t want a situation where Americans made their own Jacobin party, took advantage of divisions within the newly formed American state, and then put James Madison’s head in a guillotine. He was terrified of abolitionists too. He was also talking more specifically about what were then called “Democratic-Republican Societies” which by and large were critical of Washington, favored France, and some abolitionists were involved. They were politically motivated to prevent aristocracy from reappearing in the new USA. Washington was on the side that believed the Democratic-Republicans were a scheme by France to weaken the central American government, which is an honestly funny parallel to the 20th century Red Scare.
Washington didn’t like these parties because he viewed himself as part of a New World aristocracy and he correctly knew that to maintain a genocidal, slave-trading empire, there needed to be a singular unity of interests in the state. Namely, ensuring everyone was on board with slavery. His belief that political parties would eventually split the country was proven correct when around 60 years after his death, the USA had a civil war over slavery, and support for either side was 100% partisan with Republicans in the north and Democrats in the south.
It’s possible to look at Washington’s views not as some universal claim but rather the position he held at the time because of his specific interests and class position. He was speaking to his own interest when he said political parties were bad, because they eventually provided representation to abolitionists who eventually abolished chattel slavery.
I’m not judging it as being bad, just without the political experience of the 20th and 21st centuries.
It is like George Washington saying that political parties are bad because it wasn’t thought of when writing the Constitution even though that was obviously what was going to happen.
George Washington didn’t like the idea of political parties because he was scared shitless by the then current French Revolution. He didn’t want a situation where Americans made their own Jacobin party, took advantage of divisions within the newly formed American state, and then put James Madison’s head in a guillotine. He was terrified of abolitionists too. He was also talking more specifically about what were then called “Democratic-Republican Societies” which by and large were critical of Washington, favored France, and some abolitionists were involved. They were politically motivated to prevent aristocracy from reappearing in the new USA. Washington was on the side that believed the Democratic-Republicans were a scheme by France to weaken the central American government, which is an honestly funny parallel to the 20th century Red Scare.
Washington didn’t like these parties because he viewed himself as part of a New World aristocracy and he correctly knew that to maintain a genocidal, slave-trading empire, there needed to be a singular unity of interests in the state. Namely, ensuring everyone was on board with slavery. His belief that political parties would eventually split the country was proven correct when around 60 years after his death, the USA had a civil war over slavery, and support for either side was 100% partisan with Republicans in the north and Democrats in the south.
It’s possible to look at Washington’s views not as some universal claim but rather the position he held at the time because of his specific interests and class position. He was speaking to his own interest when he said political parties were bad, because they eventually provided representation to abolitionists who eventually abolished chattel slavery.