Jeff Head,
I agree with you for the most part.. however, like I said, I don’t think George Washington ever envisioned the ipod.. the fact of the matter it takes a person 10mins to study the people and posititions of ALL the candidates for any given public office... the problem is MANY Americans are so lazy that they will wait until 10mins before they go to the balot box.. to make their decision... In George Washington’s day people actually had to seek out information on the issues.. and actually TALK about them..... we live in a world where it’s “taboo” to talk “Religion or Politics” in public.... and even “offensive” to ask your neighbor who they are going to vote for and why.... what has our nation come to?
However quickly you can get the information, however nicely you can display it, however easily you can twist it, George Washington's commnets spoke to human nature...and human nature is the determining factor when it comes to the ideals whe seek to protect in our Republic, our liberty, our unalienable rights, our heritage that have made them possible.
That goes to what you said regarding the people going to the ballot box. It will take us a long time (short of a major train wreck, which I pray we can avoid), to unentangle ourselves as a people from the morass we find ourselves in, both politically and morally...and it is a morass that has been brought on us with a will, to weaken and divide us...but that is the true course we must set our feet to.
All we seek to accomplish should be done with such goals in mind, to get us back to the foundational principles that have made us strong...and I believe one of them was meant to be people voting for candidates based on principle and not on party.
Party divides...party elicits loyalty, ultimatrely over and above that to country...just like Washington said, and we are seeing it all around us on both sides of the ailse, to all of our detriment.