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By Lisa Richards
February 16, 2009
“All I dare hope, is, that, if in executing this
task I have been too much
swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an
affectionate sensibility
to this transcendence proof, of the confidence of
my fellow citizens; and have thence too little consulted my capacity
as
well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me; my
error will be palliated by the motives
which misled me, a d its
consequences be judged by my Country…”
George Washington,
First Inaugural
Address, April 30, 1789
George Washington understood the great job granted him by the American
people, he
knew he must uphold his duty honorably, he was obligated to
“…renounce every pecuniary compensation (financial
rewards) …and must
accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station [of
President of the United
States]…be limited to such actual expenditures as
the public good may be thought to require.” Washington
became president
to serve the people, work for the people, to be held accountable to and
for everything he did.
His pay, he believed, was to go toward his public
service, not personal whims.
That philosophy is now considered
whimsical.
Washington wanted to serve, not dictate or control. He had no desire for
a life term befitting
monarchs like today’s leaders. Washington saw his
role as one bestowed upon him with honor he must uphold
or leave office in
disgrace.
That attitude today is considered old-fashioned.
On May 8, 1798, Washington
told the House of Representatives that he
viewed his “…past endeavors in Service of Country” as being
“far overpaid
by its [America’s] goodness…” He further declared he did not feel the
presidency deserved such high pay since he could not guarantee perfection
in his leadership. He told the House
he would “rely” on their “wisdom” in
deciding what he deserved financially.
Today’s
leaders simply bail out Wall Street while purchasing whores.
America’s Founders truly saw leadership as service
to God and country.
They viewed their role with humility, an honor given by one’s fellow
countrymen in a
nation where all are equal in liberty.
Washington believed he, one of the people, was accountable to the people
and must never attempt control over liberty and life. A man who would
administrate oppression was not a leader
but a tyrant.
Today’s leaders do not follow Washington’s philosophy; they adhere to
Teddy Roosevelt’s
progressive ideology: the Republican autocrat who
banished the role of servant by usurping the power of the people.
Washington led an army against such control, fighting to be free of
monarchial tyranny governing man with an iron fist
of control.
The idea that people govern, government should be limited, and states
should, and do under the
Constitution, have rights, flew out the window
with Teddy Roosevelt, a dedicated progressive, who believed centralized
control from the Executive Office was imperative to limiting the will and
rights of the people he believed needed to
be aggressively restrained by
the president (William M. Goldsmith, ed. The Growth of the Presidential
Power: A Documented
History, 3 Vols).
While Washington asked he be held accountable to the people, Roosevelt’s
administration
carried disinclination toward the Constitution. Unlike
Washington, who truly believed he was a servant of the people,
Roosevelt
conned Americans into believing his progressive populism served their
interests. According to Elmer
E. Cornwell Jr.’s book Presidential
Leadership of Public Opinion, Roosevelt’s theory was called “popular
rhetoric,” the beginning of the age of the “Rhetorical Presidency” where
the “technique”
of one’s speech, according to Cornwell, could be used to
sway people into lock-stepping with a president’s
ideology. The idea of
swaying people for votes was not new, but Roosevelt, a wealthy American,
preyed on the
middle-class and poor with his oratorical style,
strong-arming the wealthy, as well as workers, by “subordin[ating]
the big
corporation to public welfare. (Theodore Roosevelt: The Works of Theodore
Roosevelt, 20 Vols).”
The “Rhetorical Presidency” is allegorical, nothing more than a symbol of
something grand, a pseudo-savior
limited in power by the Constitution
Americans have forgotten. But Americans a century ago, like Americans
today
who voted for the great melodramatic Messianic orator Barry Obama,
fell for the declamatory theatrics of the booming
Roosevelt, and what
followed has been a century of creeping progressivism, slowly removing
guaranteed privileges
from the Bill Of Rights into what I refer to as the
Divine Right of the President.
The only way to prevent
further harm to America and the attempt of a
second bill of rights, as once endeavored by FDR and strived for by Obama,
is to rid this nation of liberal leaders; i.e. progressives.
On October 1, 1787, Richard Mason Lee, worrying
the new Constitution may
give Congress too much power, wrote to George Mason in a letter titled “On
The Deviousness
Of Congress’s Actions, And The Need For Amendments,”
stating Congress was filled with devious men hungry
for power and
amendments must be made to the new Constitution, preventing aristocratic
acts against Americans: “the
greatness of the powers given & the multitude
of Places [government offices] to be created, produces a coalition
of
Monarchy men, Military Men, Aristocrats, and Drones whose noise, impudence
& zeal exceeds all belief…This
constitution has a great many excellent
Regulations in it and if it could be reasonably amended would be a fine
system—As
it is, I think ‘tis past doubt, that if established, either a
tyranny will result from it, or it will be prevented
by a Civil War…It is
certainly the most rash and violent proceeding in the world to cram thus
suddenly into
Men a business of such infinite Moment to the happiness of
millions (from The Debate On The Constitution: Part One).”
Two centuries later, the Obama Administration, like the TR Administration
a century ago, attempts to “cram
thus suddenly” bills undermining
Americans and violating the Constitution.
Our great Constitution is
our life’s blood. It was given unto us by our
Founders through God Almighty who gave us liberty—natural
law.
Americans must stand up and fight those absconding with Constitutional
rights, inflicting America with
false rights. Such acts are tyranny.
Classical liberals: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson,
Jay,
the Framers and Signers, were willing to die so we could live free. They
did not seek lofty provisions;
they fought for liberty, the Constitution,
and America we must fight to preserve.
Washington, who asked that
he be held accountable for all his actions,
would be appalled to see what Roosevelt did to America. He would say
free
individuals are self-governed, not controlled by those placed in power.
It is time to remove the droning
pseudo-aristocrats and revive our
glorious founding.
Lisa Richards Copyright ©™ February 16, 2010
All Rights Reserved
www.lisa-richards.com©™
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