The Foresight of Former Presidents

     In President George Washington's farewell address, he warned our country of many problems he saw developing and many problems he thought might develop. Here are the major ones he discussed, in my words:

First, he warned about the party system knowing it could split the congress and America as it has. Today this system has caused deadlock in passing laws and a constant power struggle within America.

He warned that declines in religion and morality could cause corruption and a lack in the trustworthiness of people.

A common sense sort of advice he gave was that irresponsible and unnecessary accumulation of government debt without revenue to back it up would anger citizens and cause problems all around.

He thought permanent foriegn alliances were unadvisable and, in his time, they were but in contemporary times alliances seem to be completely necessary in meeting our own needs of fuel and resources. We went against his warnings when we joined as a permanent member of the United Nations.

Washington's final piece of advice was never upheld in this contry, if in any way possible, and that was to keep a military establishment that wasn't too powerful. Seeing how our military is arguably one of the strongest in the history of the world, we certainly did not stop to think about this one.

 article used: http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/washington/archives/time-to-end-thetwoparty-system.html

         President Washington warned centuries ago that a two party system would be detrimental to American politics. This shows today, as both parties are so far apart and set in their ways that congress is mostly deadlocked, as shown in the article. This is partly because the media makes lots of money pushing political extremism. Washington warned against the two party system because he knew it would split Americans. His words are true today because it can be argued that things are worse now because politicians who are found to be thinking in the middle often do not get campaign money and are exiled by their party leaders. In addition, the more centrist thinkers in politics don't get headlines and the media latches on to extreme views argued from the far left and the far right because they know that controversy sells newspapers and builds television and radio audiences. So Washington's views have sound logic in today's political world because the noise made by the extremists gets all the attention and the majority of the voices are drowned out or silenced.One of the few political leaders in the middle who still has the power of the pulpit is President Obama. When he campaigned he appealed to the middle to his advantage and still tries to do so today but is often plagued by a divided Congress that has polar views. Washington's warnings have been heeded by some, but apparently not enough to make a difference today.


        Next, in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, many more modern warnings were given to the American public. His main thoughts were:

Ike thought that we should put national interest ahead of politics. This does seem easier for him to say, though, because his congress often collaborated with himself and his cabinet during his terms.

Eisenhower also said that there is no quick fix or one size fits all solution to any crisis. This is evident in the current recession that will probably only completely mend itself years from now.

Another bit of wisdom from Dwight is that balance is the best strategy. Balanced spending, balanced budget, and balnced programs would benefit America greatly.

Like Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower told us not to spend beyond what we can afford. If we had heeded that warning, we wouldn't find ourselves plagued with trillions of dollars of debt.

Ike said that we should also spread the nation's smartest throughout the public and private sectors, not allowing one to hoard all the best workers.

Finally, he said that we need not allow special interests to dominate the government, America, and the people. We should not put too much power in any, and especially, the wrong hands, out of reach of the citizens.

 article used: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/recession-2010

       One major, seemingly obvious warning from President Eisenhower was that we should not spend more than we make. This is evident in the recession of 1980-1982, the Great Depression, and now. America was in worse shape in 2008, and we are definitely healing, but we are still weaker than before the recession. Often when there is a recession, unemployment runs very high leading to suspicion of how the government spends money. An anxious public that is either unemployed, teetering with joblessness, or fearful of losing a home loses trust in its government when it reads about wasteful spending. It is difficult for people to pick up a newspaper, watch television, or listen to the radio and rarely hear any good news about the economy or the moves made by government leaders. Wherever you turn, the news seems bad which feeds continuous "recession" dominated ideas into the news. So there are certainly a lot of pieces of news that "gloom and doom" economists can hang their hats on these days. It seems that government leaders with polar opposite veiws of what's good for the country need to find away to agree on ideas of how to balance the government checkbook. This would restore confidence in the public knowing that their leaders understand that when families are strapped and need to cut back, their national leaders are willing to do the same. Eisenhower's point is crystal clear and would be most welcome by a deficit plagued government in 2011.