And further... "They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.
"However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
From Washington's 1796 farewell.
Pure insightful brilliance by Washington. (Its sad that the DC crowd has sullied his great name and what he stood for; they have turned ‘Washington’ into a synonym for waste, inefficiency and abuse).
I’m going to read this a couple more times today, just to let those wise words sink in. Like listening again and again to great music.
Thanks for sharing.
📌