To be “devil’s advocate” what political experience did George Washington have? He hadn’t been the governor of anything.
George Washington only commanded any army that won the Revolutionary War. Ditto with Generals Grant and Eisenhower.
Military experience like that surely equals or even trumps political experience.
“what political experience did George Washington have? He hadn’t been the governor of anything.”
Has Carson fought and won a war that founded a nation?
Don’t make such an absurd comparison between who George Washington was before becoming president, and this doctor.
Here is a reminder of what Washington’s life was like, and his leadership in America before becoming President.
“In 1769, Washington introduced a resolution to the House of Burgesses calling for Virginia to boycott British goods until the Acts were repealed. After the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774, Washington chaired a meeting in which the Fairfax Resolves were adopted calling for the convening of the Continental Congress and the use of armed resistance as a last resort. He was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in March 1775.
After the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the political dispute between Great Britain and her North American colonies escalated into an armed conflict. In May, Washington traveled to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia dressed in a military uniform, indicating that he was prepared for war. On June 15, he was appointed Major General and Commander-in-Chief of the colonial forces against Great Britain. As was his custom, he did not seek out the office of commander, but he faced no serious competition.
Washington was the best choice for a number of reasons: he had the prestige, military experience and charisma for the job and he had been advising Congress for months. Another factor was political. The Revolution had started in New England and at the time, they were the only colonies that had directly felt the blunt of British tyranny. Virginia was the largest British colony and deserved recognition and New England needed Southern support.”
“In 1787, Washington was again called to the duty of his country. Since independence, the young republic had been struggling under the Articles of Confederation, a structure of government that centered power with the states. But the states were not unified. They fought among themselves over boundaries and navigation rights and refused to contribute to paying off the nation’s war debt. In some instances, state legislatures imposed tyrannical tax policies on their own citizens.
Washington was intensely dismayed at the state of affairs, but only slowly came to the realization that something should be done about it. Perhaps he wasn’t sure the time was right so soon after the Revolution to be making major adjustments to the democratic experiment. Or perhaps because he hoped he would not be called upon to serve, he remained noncommittal. But when Shays’s rebellion erupted in Massachusetts, Washington knew something needed to be done to improve the nation’s government. In 1786, Congress approved a convention to be held in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation.
At the Constitution Convention, Washington was unanimously chosen as president. Among others, such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, Washington had come to the conclusion that it wasn’t amendments that were needed, but a new constitution that would give the national government more authority. He spoke but once during the proceedings, but he lobbied hard with his fellow delegates in the afterhours for major changes in the structure of government.
In the end, the Convention produced a plan for government that not only would address the country’s current problems, but would endure through time. After the convention adjourned, Washington’s reputation and support for the new government were indispensable to the Constitution’s ratification. Opposition was strident, if not organized, with many of America’s leading political figures—including Patrick Henry and Sam Adams—condemning the proposed government as a grab for power. Even in Washington’s native Virginia, the Constitution was ratified by only one vote.
Still hoping to retire to his beloved Mount Vernon, Washington was once again called upon to serve this country. During the presidential election of 1789, he received a vote from every elector to the Electoral College, the only president in American history to be elected by unanimous approval.”