George Washington Religion Vs Government

Do you ever wonder that our country could be different. Do you think that we could live in a world without debt or political parties. This world was possible. In 1796, George Washington planned on leaving office. James Madison wrote Washington some notes for this type of address, but in 1792, when he originally thought he was going to leave the office. He did not leave office and set the notes aside. In 1796, Washington took out those notes and used them to make a address. Once Washington wrote this draft, he sent the draft to Alexander Hamilton, and they went back and forth revising the address. Then Alexander Hamilton got criticism from John Jay. In the end Washington wrote the final draft. The address was never read outloud, but was published in a newspaper for Philadelphia and sponsored by the Federalists. Washington gave us many warnings for us to follow. We did not follow these warnings, and here
we are today almost 20 trillion dollars in debt. We should of heeded these warnings that Washington gave us.
Firstly he said that we should try to stay out of permanent foreign alliances. Back then this made more sense, because the major countries was Britain and France. Britain and France hated each other. Getting into an alliance with another would mean we would be at war with the other. Back then an alliance could mean a death sentence. If we go to the present, we have hundreds of countries to worry about. Even today do we really need these alliances. All of these promises will be broken eventually. Alliances are never meant to last forever. New people go into control, and can break these promises. These alliances can easily be broken because we can get a new president every 4 years. Each of these presidents have different ideas on how to side with. Alliances can be broken because of president’s. Our system with a snap of a finger can break an alliance with another nation. Permanent alliances cannot work with our ever changing system.
Secondly he told us that we should use our money wisely. We did not follow his advice on this. Like stated earlier, we are almost 20 trillion dollars in debt. We are spending more money than what we can make. If we keep this up then we will go deeper into debt. Back then we were also in debt, but not in trillions. Back then we were $77,228,000 in debt. When Washington wrote this address, they were losing the debt because of Hamilton’s Financial plan. That plan was made mainly so we could lose debt. Today we do not use the financial plan because this world has changed from then. The plan worked to where we lost debt. The real problem is not that we have no plan. The problem is that we have a spending problem. We buy too many items that we do not really need for our country. We are creating ways to help our people, but lose money instead. We have social security for people who work. The government spends that money and then have to pay you back. By doing this we are losing more money than making money of helping everyone. We are losing more money than we can make. If we followed Washington’s advice of valuing our money, then we would not be where we are today.
Lastly Washington warned us about political parties. Back then political parties were just forming. You were either a Democratic-Republican or a Federalist. These were the only 2 parties. Today we have the major parties Democratic and Republican with many 3rd parties. Washington says “ It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration...agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one...against another...It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption...thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.” This quote is saying that political parties are to distract us and to make false promises that will never be fulfilled. Also other countries can have a voice in our own affairs without us knowing. For example the most recent election Russia is believed to of hacked into the voting process. Also Trump is already facing the reality that he can not do everything he promised to do for the people who voted for him. Also many people do not agree with each other and “fight” each other on which candidate is better than the other. The political parties are against each other and is separating our country farther apart.
Although, some of Washington’s ideas do not make sense today.
Washington thought that religion and government should go together. Today we have religion and government separate. He thought that the country should have only one religion for all. This idea today and back then would be very unconstitutional. The first amendment protects many individual rights. One of these individual rights is the freedom of religion. Many different religions exist today, meaning if you chose one, you lose people. People come to America so they can practice what they believe in. Taking away this right is losing people who live in and come to your country all because they cannot practice there own beliefs. Even though this idea is a little out of date, most of Washington’s advice works for our country. He told us to value our credit, which we have not. If we had followed this advice, would we be in debt today? This question will not be answered because you cannot change the past. This advice could help all of us and make this country a better place for all if we do something about
this.