Recent George Washington Commentaries

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What America Needs Most
In the face of near-impossible odds, George Washington–tasked with leading his relatively untrained, beaten-down, militiamen demoralized by the deaths of 2,000 from disease–ultimately turned the tide with his victory over the British at the battle of Princeton. How did he succeed in his greatest test of character and courage? Washington’s unequivocal moral integrity earned him the trust of his men...
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April 11, 2023
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George Washington’s Rules of Civility
With offensive slurs and threats thrown around, Friday’s election of a House speaker was another example of a lack of civility in America. But our first president, George Washington didn’t have the best of dispositions either. He had a reputation for “tumultuous passions that accompany greatness,” Gouverneur Morris, one of the Founding Fathers, noted of Washington. The Latin word civilis...
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January 10, 2023
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American Integrity in the Era of Trump
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” In the depths of the Revolutionary War, George Washington’s troops struggled with disease, hunger, and defeat. What Washington needed was a...
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July 29, 2022
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Are Vaccination Mandates Ethical?
To mandate, or not to mandate, that is the question. For 18 months, Americans have tolerated masks, travel, and event restrictions, and virtual home hibernation. “Overall in the United States, 74.1 percent of Americans over five years old have at least one coronavirus shot, and 62.8 percent are fully vaccinated.” However, just when you thought it was safe to step...
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November 30, 2021
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On This Presidents’ Day: A Truism and a Warning
With Saturday’s verdict by the Senate to acquit former President Donald Trump of inciting the attack on the Capitol, it’s more evident than ever that the Republican Party is on a ventilator and they are — for the foreseeable future — likely to willfully remain in a Trump coma. Any additional words I might use to describe a party that...
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February 15, 2021
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Democracy Calls on Us
We are living in dangerous times. In his biography of George Washington, Douglas Southall Freeman wrote that President Washington led the country “by directness, by deference and by manifest dedication to duty.” Donald Trump is the polar opposite of Washington in character and duty. Indeed, Washington would be sickened to see that the nation’s capital that bears his name has...
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December 11, 2020
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“A Fire Not to be Quenched”
“A democracy cannot survive merely by being well informed, it must also be contemplative, and wise.” – E.B. White John and Jeremy Zogby are part of the team at Zogby Strategies whose mission is to examine Americans’ thinking to keep us better informed, and hopefully, more “contemplative and wise.” Before Tuesday’s election, both correctly recognized that the race between Trump...
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November 6, 2020