“(T)he common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of (political) party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.” – George Washington

There is much myth built into the stories surrounding the founding of a nation. Ours is no exception, particularly those legends surrounding our government’s first leader.

Did George Washington ever tell a lie? Of course he did, just like all of us have. He was also a fine general but has never been considered a brilliant military tactician by scholars of warfare.

Moreover, Washington was an intelligent man but was not at a level of genius as some of the other founding fathers such as Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

Yet, one quality has remained attached to Washington that largely seems to be accurate – his Solomon-esque wisdom. This characteristic combined with the leadership skills he developed throughout his life made him a natural and obvious choice to be the country’s first president despite the tremendous talents of many of the other founders.

The quote that introduced this article came from Washington’s farewell address. It was never delivered as a public speech but was instead distributed to newspapers across the country.

In this address Washington informed the public he would not seek a third term as president and shared his hopes and concerns regarding the future of our infant country.

One of his chief worries came from the growth of organized political parties occurring right before his eyes. The Constitution, only in effect for eight years at the time, was not designed with the idea of Congressmen and presidents representing political parties.

Washington saw parties as a threat to national unity due to their natural creation of opposing factions. These factions would misrepresent the motives of those in other parties and would bury the will of the nation beneath the will of the party leaders, he feared.

In other words, the tail would wag the dog as political party leaders could dictate what is important to the public rather than the other way around.

Washington’s fear the country could not prosper with political parties involved in government proved incorrect, but he was right about there being times when sharp party divisions could undermine the purpose and operation of government.

We live in a time of sharp division, and parties are testing just how far they can go in their pursuits to grab and hold onto the reins of government.

In Texas, the Republican-controlled legislature is considering redrawing the district lines for U.S. House of Representative members.

Redistricting is usually only done after the census every 10 years, not five years after the census. Texas Republicans cannot even claim the maps were unfairly drawn after the 2020 census because Republicans drew them.

Their only conceivable goal would be to draw the map to max out the chances to elect Republicans while providing even less consideration for drawing sensible districts than before.

In response, California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has promoted the idea of doing away with his state’s independent redistricting commission and returning control of drawing the lines to the heavily Democratic California State Legislature.

Even in Alabama we are seeing political parties creep into new frontiers. AL.com’s John Sharp reported the Baldwin County Democratic Party is outright endorsing some candidates in upcoming municipal elections while at least one Fairhope City Council candidate is placing the Republican elephant symbol on some of his campaign signs.

All municipal elections in Alabama are nonpartisan, meaning no candidates run under a party label. Now parties and candidates, at least in one part of the state, are trying to inject partisanship into what may be the only place people can get involved in politics while still avoiding the gigantic shade cast by political parties.

By now, you are probably thinking I believe political parties should be abolished. I don’t. There are plenty of good people in political parties.

The current danger is the growth of some segments in both parties made up of people willing to place gaining power above the good of the country. Their reasoning for this is often something like the other party is so completely misguided that more and more extreme actions must be taken to stop them from having power.

This mindset is what worried George Washington. It leads people to believe removing the separation of powers established in the Constitution and the changing or abusing of commonsense rules and traditions are necessary.

I can’t lie; this George Washington fella really was a wise dude.