Welcome to the first installment of Blogging the Presidents: A Voting While Intoxicated™ Almost Original Series. We will be taking a serious look at the 42 men who have led our country and hopefully finding a few laughable details.
PART I
George Washington is routinely named among the greatest Presidents and Americans in history. Yes, he was the first President (well, at least the first under the Constitution) and yes, he was a General in a victorious war. But what did he really do? By all accounts, he was no great tactician as a General. He lost about as many battles as he won. What he did have was a particularly strong ability to lead, whether it was his troops or in politics.
Yet, serving as the President of the Constitutional Convention he was not a particularly important proponent of ideas. Later as President, he largely avoided a role in creating policies, leaving that to Congress and some members of his cabinet. His real contribution was establishing precedents in administration of Presidential powers, and as much as anything, voluntarily leaving after two terms, even though the country likely would have allowed him to stay until death. This set a precedent only broken once (FDR) and made it clear that the office was greater than the man. His condemnation of partisan politics was as naive (as was Madison’s lack of foresight in seeing how they would weaken his institutional structure) as his warning to avoid entanglement in European manners was vital through the first century of the country. Ultimately, greatest might be too much praise for a fairly modest man, but he was certainly one of the best men to serve in the office.
So, the bit of humor to be taken from Washington. On his farm at Mount Vernon, one of his primary crops was hemp (the plant pot comes from). So that we presently outlaw the growing of hemp is tantamount to pissing on Washington’s grave. Anyway, I say, be patriotic, smoke a joint today. Perhaps another day I’ll make the wonkish argument of why legalizing hemp would be great policy in numerous ways.
