Will the real GOAT please stand up

“I have no other view than to promote the public good, and am unambitious of honors not founded in the approbation of my Country.”
~ George Washington

With infinite fortitude and relentless dedication, he accomplished what should have been an impossible mission. He held the rag tag Continental Army together through thick and thin until the British Redcoats were finally vanquished at Yorktown and independence was won for his new nation. At that moment in time he was the most beloved and most powerful man on the continent. So popular was he that, had he desired, he could have seized the reins of power and become America’s version of a monarch.

However, after more than eight years away from his beloved Mount Vernon plantation, General Washington was eager to merely settle down with Martha, kick back and enjoy the view overlooking the Potomac which he described as “one of the finest Rivers in the world.” Such was his desire, and such was his intent. When the King of England, George III, was informed of Washington’s intended course, he is purported to have incredulously proclaimed, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

And so it was that on December 23, 1783 the greatest man in the world voluntarily resigned his commission before Congress to, in his words, “take my leave of all the employments of public life.” But history would soon prove that it was not yet done with the public life of citizen Washington. A new nation was now calling at his door for him to once again take command.

It was, therefore, a reluctant 57 year old war hero who delayed his retirement from public service to answer this fledgling nation’s call to lead it as America’s first President. It was a daunting task that must have seemed as difficult to Washington as winning a war. But at the core of his character was a bedrock belief that public service was a duty that he had been called to. Thus, he felt that a public minded man who loved his country had no choice but to obey the summons. Still, it was with a host of misgivings that he would enter the executive office with the statement, “Integrity and firmness is all I can promise.”

By the end of his second term at the age of 64 and 45 years of public service, America’s first President was already an old man, and looking it. But it was more than his aging body and various maladies that would cause him to choose to relinquish the Presidency, a near monarchical role which he could have held to his dying breath had to chosen to do so. If he were to die in office, he was concerned that it would set a precedent that the presidency was a lifetime appointment. He also had a variety of other concerns about the future of the nation, concerns that he would address in his farewell letter, concerns that have proven to be prescient in light of American history and current events.

On September 19, 1796 the farewell address of America’s first President was published in a Philadelphia newspaper, surprising news that would stun the nation. With the word-mithing assistance of fellow Federalist, Alexander Hamilton, the 7,641 word document began:

“Friends and Fellow-Citizens:
The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.”
[Washington, George. George Washington Papers, Series 2, Letterbooks -1799: Letterbook 24, April 3, 1793 – March 3, 1797. April 3, – March 3, 1797, 1793. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mgw2.024/. ]

Fast forward with me in time now to Sunday July 21, 2024. On most Sunday’s America’s 46^th President and First Lady would have been attending morning Mass. However, on this Lord’s day he is hunkered down at home recuperating from his second bout of Covid 19. But that’s not his main concern by a long shot. Overarching every other problem of the day is his concern for the welfare of the nation he serves. On this day the man who has been a public servant for half a century, a man whose job it is to make some of the toughest decisions of anyone in the world is sharing his latest decision by posting a surprising farewell announcement to social media:
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

With that news President Biden has followed in the noble footsteps of President Washington by abrogating his candidacy. And he has done so in a new world of partisan politics, a world unknown in President Washington’s day, yet a future that caused him concern as he saw it evolving. Now at a time when the insatiable quest for power, to the point of fabricating lies of astronomical magnitude and inciting violent insurrections in an attempt to hold on to power regardless of proper decorum and just adherence to the law of the land has become a matter of fact, the decision of an incumbent President to abort his candidacy for a second term earns him an honored place in American history along side this nation’s first POTUS.

While King George’s proclamation of worldly greatness for such an act may be hyperbole, the selfless, humble relinquishment of such a lofty position for the good of the country and the preservation of democracy is praiseworthy and deserving of the respect, admiration and gratitude of any citizen with a functioning moral compass.

No President from Washington’s time to the present has been infallible. None were always pure in their intentions or wise in their decisions, for all were mere mortals like the rest of us. President Biden, unlike Washington, was not winning popularity contests at the end of his time in office. But like Washington, he had devoted his life to public service, and like Washington “integrity” and “firmness” is what he could promise. And he lived up to that promise.

While his predecessor and political opponent in response to Biden’s announcement declared him to be “the worst president in the history of the United States by far,” objective historians, journalists and pundits are lauding his as being one of the most consequential one term presidencies for all the right reasons, his predecessor is seen as the most consequential President for all the wrong reasons.

In a May 22, 2024 opinion article in the New Your Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/opinion/trump-history-transformative-president.html), Marjorie J. Hershey, a political scientist at Indiana University, Bloomington, contributed to the Times article with these comments: “I’d rate Trump as a significant president. Not a great president or even a good one, but significant in that he has pushed a movement to reverse many of the gains in acceptance of diversity that have been so hard-fought in recent decades… In some ways, Trump is a modern-day version of the grisly race baiters of the Old South in that he’s understood that whipping up fears and hatred and stimulating chaos allows those with real power to accumulate more profits while the rest of the public is busy hating and fearing one another.”

In conclusion, as we consider the American Presidency, those who have occupied the office and the qualities they brought to it, who would be seen as the GOAT (GreatestOfAllTime)? As I consider the outcome of that scenario, and since I live in a culture that while not worshiping golden calves, has a true admiration for those perceived to be GOATs I close with two of those teachable moments from Rabbi Jesus’ lesson plan for living the abundant life:

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”’And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18:1-5)

“But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” (Matthew 20:25-28)