And I don’t want to discourage thinking about fundamental change to the Constitution. It has obviously failed to keep us safe in freedom, Obama and Kagan and Frank and Pelosi are all lessons in that, and examples of what a corrupted populace brings forth as leaders. I think the founders did the best they could but most seemed to understand that a moral populace was the guarantor of the freedom and liberty of the people and once that went despotism was likely to arise. I’ll check out McCullough’s 1776 from the library for sure . . . I did not know that Washington hoped that a strong central government would protect liberty against the people (but it makes sense). I hope someone can figure out or identify a Constitutional fix that will help extend that period of liberty longer before despotism arises, because I don’t think we’ve done much better than Republican Rome . . . about 200 years . . . which isn’t much improvement for 2,200 years of history or thereabouts. Maybe nothing really changes : )
Washington was uneducated compared to the other patriots andd founders. He didn't have the theoretical background they did. He was a military man with practical experience as his guide.
It makes sense that a man who was a supreme military commander, and a master of hundreds of slaves, would be more amenable to a strong central government. And for all I know he may have been right. Maybe we can do no better. I question the notion, and I point out the defects in our system, in the hope that some better system may one day be created, but I usually fall back on the notion that certain problems of humanity have no solution.