As I do every year, I call for the restoration of George
Washington’s birthday, February 22, as a federal and state holiday. It is urgent for Americans to recall the
example of contributions of
Washington to be
inspired to help defend the
American
Republic from grave
threat.
The federal holiday is officially
called “Washington’s Birthday,” but is never celebrated on his birthday, while
States usually refer to the holiday as “Presidents’ Day,” which has become the
popular name for the celebration. The
day was intended to honor Washington for his entire life as the General who led
the American Revolution, a Founding Father, President and greatest American,
not only for his presidency. The current
practice of combining the observation of the holiday with celebrating other
Presidents detracts from the contributions of Washington.
Only one other American is currently honored with federal and state
holidays for his birthday for his contributions of following the founding
principles of America,
but not the Father of Our Country who lead them into effect.
Last year,
I noted that including all the Presidents in the observation of Washington’s
birthday necessarily includes not only those who were ineffective or those whose
policies were controversial of who may have been objectionable, but those who
were scoundrels. Recent events have
validated my concern.
At the
time, I was particularly thinking of William Jefferson Clinton, Jr. and Donald
J. Trump, Sr. Although there are
differences between them, there are striking similarities and the former, a
Democrat, had encouraged the latter, who was a political donor to Clinton’s wife, to get
more involved in the Republican Party.
Clinton had, among other things, protested against the United States on
foreign soil during war and then in office, had committed perjury and
obstruction of justice in a federal lawsuit in which he was being sued for sexual
harassment by a state employee during the time he was Governor of Arkansas by
lying about his abuse of his office for conducting an adulterous affair with an
intern in the Executive Mansion. Clinton
was impeached by the House of Representatives, but acquitted by the Senate
because of his popularity and because of partisan support for his policies,
both reasons that were not consistent with the purpose of impeachment for high
crimes and misdemeanors, as lying under oath, for which lesser officials had been
impeached and removed from office, is inconsistent with holding any office for
which an oath is required. The election
and acquittal of Clinton
lowered the standards for the presidency and allowed the election of Trump and
his partisan acquittal. Indeed, it was
noticeable that during the Special Counsel investigation of Trump and his
impeachment, the exact same arguments were made by Trump supporters and Clinton supporters had
made.
Among other things, Trump had as a
private citizen a questionable record as a businessman and, like Clinton, was of unfit character, had dodged the wartime
draft through fraud, and had made a mysterious trip to the Soviet
Union. Instead of primarily
ideological reasons, as in Clinton’s case, Trump had business interests in the
Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, among other
places and an indifference to or even admiration of authoritarians, such as
Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, who helped Trump get elected in 2016 in a close
contest with a “sweeping and systematic” interference in American politics,
which Trump had welcomed and even had coordinated his messaging with the
release of information stolen by the Russian military intelligence agency and
released through a cut-out. The Special
Counsel found that Trump, once in office, had obstructed justice by interfering
with his investigation into the matter.
It is not even necessary to prove my point by citing Trump’s profiting
off the presidency and violations of the Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution. Neither Clinton,
nor Trump could have passed even the lowest level of federal security clearance
before their elections, but were nevertheless elected by the Electoral College,
which has been corrupted by partisan laws contrary to its intent as a
safeguard, and given access to the most sensitive U.S. secrets. Both made defense and foreign policy
decisions that were contrary to U.S.
interests based upon their rejection of standard American foreign policy
principles.
As I explained in a post in more
detail earlier late last month, Trump was impeached, for example, for abuse of
power and obstruction of justice for extorting an ally, Ukraine, to smear a
leading opposition presidential candidate by withholding military aid he had
signed into law to defend it against Russian invasion and to announce the
opening of an investigation based on a conspiracy theory fabrication by the
Kremlin that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 presidential
election. In addition to pecuniary
interests, Trump was motivated to continue his broadly claimed immunity from
investigation and prosecution (for himself, his businesses and for his family
and associates, from both federal and state prosecutors) while in office. Trump was impeached with the highest vote
totals for any articles of impeachment ever.
One Representative, who had left the Republican Party to become
independent because of supporting impeachment of Trump for obstruction of the
Russian interference investigation, voted in favor. One Republican Senator voted to convict and
remove Trump from office, the first time there was ever a vote to convict from
a member of the same party as the President.
Trump’s subsequent behavior of threats and retaliation of witnesses and calls
for lighter punishments for his convicted henchmen represent a worsening of his
authoritarian tendencies and contempt for constitutional principles, such as
the Separation of Powers, the independence of the judiciary, equality before
the law, the freedom of the press and other freedoms, in addition to his
compromise of the independence, self-determination and sovereignty of the
United States.
The practice of supplanting
Washington’s birthday with “Presidents’ Day” necessarily honors such scoundrels,
contrary to liberty, equality and representative government to honor and
contrary to Washington’s exemplary example of
selfless service who did not use his office for self-aggrandizement, unlike Clinton or Trump. More than ever, Americans would benefit from
recalling and honoring The Father of Our Country’s indispensable service to the
United States
through a restoration of the observation of Washington’s Birthday.
