I Think George Washington Would Have Been a Blogger

image from wikipedia

I just had a random brainwave:

When most people think of George Washington, they think of his most famous picture. You know, the one on the $1 bill. You see it every day. And you don't see it everyday. We ignore it once since it's so familiar.

It's a boring picture. Washington is emotionally neutral. And that is what made him the perfect first President. People did not want a dictator or any kind of autocrat. The American citizens of that time wanted a disinterested and neutral, yet strong leader. They wanted someone who understood their fear of monarchy. Washington did that.

Transition to today. Monarchy is no big deal to Americans any more. Those of us who know about the defunct British monarchal system laugh at it—the Queen has no real power any more. But for some reason we still want that leader who understands us.

The “disinterested” part of the Presidential job description is obviously gone—all politicians rightfully care about the country. But many politicians are not willing to participate in the community to understand the needs of the country.

Barack Obama is one of the few politicians who understands America anymore. He understands Republicans despite his vocal flubs (clinging to guns and religion). He understands racists and racism (see his “A More Perfect Union” speech). And he understands America's youth—the Facebook, MySpace generation.

How does he do that with today's political situation which basically makes Republicans and Democrats out to be sworn enemies? With simple comments like these:

“We’ve had some disagreements in the past, and we’ll have some disagreements in the future,” Obama says in a video on his website regarding the FISA bill and a group that did not support it, Netroots Nation. “I promise to continue to listen to your concerns, take them seriously and discuss them respectfully.”

[I got the text of this video from a blog I read]

All politicians discuss issues before deciding their views. But Washington, like Obama, seemed to generally care about each viewpoint. George Washington would be a blogger were he alive today because it would enable him to hear the most viewpoints from the most people in the shortest amount of time. He would have accounts on basically every social media site: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg and the rest of the social media sites.



How is everybody's summer going?

--Brian
My Personal Favorite Social Media/Blog Site