this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
567 points (96.9% liked)
US Authoritarianism
826 readers
27 users here now
Hello, I am researching American crimes against humanity. . This space so far has been most strongly for memes, and that's fine.
There's other groups and you are welcome to add to them. USAuthoritarianism Linktree
See Also, my website. USAuthoritarianism.com be advised at time of writing it is basically just a donate link
Cool People: [email protected]
founded 8 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It was a de-facto duopoly for the first 30 years of the country, then the Whigs came in and shook everything up before the Republican party came into being. So while the 3 parties that have held the White House in the last 200 years all formed after Washington died, this was common then.
Of course Washington in particular had indeed said "that is a bad idea." I still fail to see how blame falls singularly on him, was literally every other founding father inconsequential and the entirety of our legal system was singularly written by one man?
I didn't say it is all his fault, but he was the most influential man in America from Independence until his death. He was at the Constitution convention and the only part he sat out for was when they debated the office of the head executive, since everyone knew it was going to be him.
People quote his farewell address to criticize the Democrats and GOP, but the government structure he helped create makes parties inevitable.
Maybe that was another poster above, my mistake. He was indeed influential but far from the sole decider in the shaping of the country, and while yes he did help install the system that lead to the current situation it's possible that 200+ years of hindsight affects our judgement in a different way than his was, and he still foresaw the need to not get stuck in a two party system. Sure, he may not have been an omniscient all powerful being able to usher in an eternity of utopian bliss, but he tried his best to improve the station of the people at the time.