Washington would have been the only man who could have been a benevolent dictator (king) for the rest of his life and the majority of people then would have been ok with it. He didn’t want to do it. I believe he knew it wouldn’t be a good thing to do, either for himself personally, or that it would be a rallying point for others to group up and attack him/the government.
Another reson it would have worked was that Washington had other men of high character around him helping and assisting him and that is crucial. He couldnt do it alone if everyone else around him was crooked and corrupted.
No one alive here has the moral character of George Washington. And there aren’t enough uncorruptible people to surround a benevolent dictator to keep things moving and flowing and uncorrupted. Any benevolent dictatorship, no matter how well it starts out, will not end well.
The only problem is that it would have established a precedent. Andrew Jackson would decide to be President for life, after all George Washington did it
“No one alive here has the moral character of George Washington. “
In the late 1700’s upper class educated men aspired to be virtuous. They took pride in recognition by fellow citizens of being moral, well bred gentlemen of good character. Since they were mortal men, some fell short of the ideal but on the whole this zeal to be virtuous was critical to the establishment of the American Republic.
Who today in public office or leadership in the private sector aspires to lead a virtuous life. Even the clergy today seems unwilling to aim high, much less inspire parishioners to lead virtuous lives. Not only do the leaders in our society fail to demonstrate any desire to be of impeccable character, they are often rewarded by the people (the mob) for their corruption and depravity. In a society with no standards of behavior, much less virtue, how can there be anything but lawlessness and anarchy?
The Founding Fathers knew our system depended upon a moral citizen to keep it intact. John Adams, “moral and religious people…” yada yada yada
“We lost this country when they removed the Ten Commandments from the town square.” - Tom Wolfe
There is no coming back from this. We have no shared values, no common goals with the “progressives”. We have compromised , giving them half. They keep coming back for the other half over and over.
“ They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”.