By: Paige Rohe

 

Most American schoolchildren know that George Washington never told lie.
For almost two hundred years they have been taught "The Fable of George Washington and the Cherry Tree," a morality tale by Mason Locke Weems largely responsible for turning our first American president into the archetype of American values.

As a nation we've looked to Washington as a rallying point, because we've made him representative of all that is good, pure, and well,  "American" about America. Yet, we are doing ourselves a disservice by seeking so much perfection  in an imperfect man. Washington may have disliked being deceitful, but he had no problem owning slaves.

Our public school systems contribute to these and other egregious generalizations of the Presidents that tend  to gloss over the failures, flaws, and even horrific acts committed by our Presidents, such as Hayes's Jim Crow Laws, Andrew Jackson's Trail of Tears, and F.D.R.'s Japanese Interment Camps.

Thus, we are taught throughout our youth that presidents are paragons of wisdom and justice who aren't at all capable of committing or supporting  horrendously wrong governmental policies. And because the average American does not choose  to  take a class in college or read a relevant biography, We the People, won't  learn  perhaps the most
important lesson of all-for all the emphasis we place  on presidential character, do we actually hold our presidents to any sort  of standard?

Some contemporary political scholars argue increasing similarities between  political parties have reduced presidential elections to mere contests  of character. While personality has always been a part of the show, 60 years ago it  wasn't so easy to project strength and resolve on the radio. We would  never have  elected a man in a wheel chair in 1933 if we had been shown the true reality  of  F.D.R.'s disability before the election.

And now in 2005, come January 20th, we've got four more years of George  W.-Bush that is-, a President who swore on a stack of bibles in 2001 to "preserve,  protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America,"  using the  same words his predecessor, another George W. used 216 years ago. But unlike Washington, President Bush is not
famous for his honesty nor his preservation  of certain, very important constitutional rights.

I understand that complete disclosure on matters of national security would create more damage than good. I'm not asking to be told everything about  Botswana or the Ukraine. I simply want to be told upfront that something is a  clear and present danger if it is, not simply if its supposed to be or could be.

George Washington, as a gentleman of his time, probably would have been insulted if he had to swear to uphold certain standards of character that were implicit in his office. Today, however, it seems appropriate. We'll never know if Washington really did prefer to tell the truth, but we do know that Bush was less than honest with us and entrenched us in a war that has cost untold numbers of lives.

History may belong to the ages, but the present belongs to us. We have a responsibility to actually hold our leaders responsible for their failures  in character rather than re-electing them despite of it.

Paige Rohe is an International Studies student at Emory University and a contributing writer for PurePolitics.com. She can be reached at feedback@purepolitics.com.

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