George Washington’s “Farewell Address” is often considered the most important document for the US political strategy. In tandem with Alexander Hamilton, he developed a memorandum or ‘instruction’ for future governors to ensure that his vision would be determined and understood not only by political scientists but also by the whole nation. In the contemporary world, it can be seen that political strategy has significantly changed under the influence of economic, social, and political streams. However, Washington’s work did not lose its impact and rationality in today’s conditions, so the US government should adjust certain aspects of its functioning to match Washington’s vision of correct internal and external policies.
Even though the vast majority of Washington’s directions were strictly followed, the US society cannot admit that today’s government represents all the primarily implemented appreciations by the constitution of the United States of America. Washington and Hamilton prioritized the nations’ unitedness as the fundamental factor of the country’s political and economic power. However, by choosing the extremely capitalistic vector of development combined with the political polarization of the two parties, society has developed severe interpersonal competitiveness, which has been the major source of instability and uncertainty for the last six years. Indeed, capitalistic development is strongly coherent with meritocracy, representing a social principle of distributing the gains to those who sacrificed the biggest amount of work to achieve their goal.
At the same time, on the country’s level, such a system of natural competition without considerable social security led the country to the absolute destruction of the middle class, which represented Washington’s ideal majority. In today’s world, when 1% of the US population gains approximately 40% of the country’s income, it is impossible to continue living without significant social tensions and class repartitions (Ingraham, 2017). Consequently, the citizens in different parts of the country experienced direct collisions of various social classes, races, and cultures. The past diversity that united the abandoned colony as a distinct country has turned into a major issue that ruins the US political stability and the potential for economic development.
At the same time, the most important factor of the country’s development after Washington’s presidency was the society’s ability to resist both external and internal threats of territorial separation and the consequent formation of distinct governments. On the one hand, the first president of the US was majorly concerned by this issue since he learned many ‘lessons’ from historical defaults of the new-formed governments that could not hold their unitedness through multiple generations. For instance, due to the language and cultural specifications, German tribes and formations could not construe the joint government that would unite the nation even for a long time after Washington’s death.
On the other hand, Washington developed a specific set of rules concerning foreign relations policies. The most important aspect of these directions was for the government to maintain short-term alliances instead of establishing continuous interconnections. This directive has also been derived from the history lesson. Washington thoroughly analyzed the United Kingdom’s international relations strategy. The most specific lesson for avoiding long-term alliances should have been demonstrated by the opium wars in the 17th century, where the dominant country utilized long-term interdependency in its favor. As a result, it is possible to state that in the contemporary world, this directive was successfully applied throughout the whole history of the United States. Even though there is a significant interdependency with China, the US is considered an externally independent country with a dominant role in all alliances, such as NATO, NAFTA, and IMF.
Reference
Ingraham, C. (2017). The richest 1 percent now owns more of the country’s wealth than at any time in the past 50 years. The Washington Post. Web.