In advance of her upcoming address to the Tea Party convention in Nashville, Sarah Palin recently named George Washington her favorite Founding Father. It’s an unassailable choice. Who better than the Revolution’s “indispensable man,” the American Cincinnatus, to inspire the Tea Party’s small-government, anti-tax rebels? In homage, one Pennsylvania group even held its Tea Party rally last April at the site where Gen. Washington crossed the Delaware.
And yet. For chronic quibblers, there are nits to pick. Washington, for instance, didn’t wholly embrace the original tea party. He backed the Bostonians’ opposition to the “despotick” tax that had instigated the protest, but the tea-tippling Virginian stopped short of approving their “conduct in destroying the tea.” It wasn’t until 1794, however, when President Washington was struggling to fund a government, that his views on anti-tax rebels took a decidedly hostile turn. After Washington imposed an excise tax on whiskey, farmers in Pennsylvania, for whom whiskey was a virtual cash crop, rebelled, attacking federal revenue agents. With a “solemn conviction” that federal prerogatives were at stake, Washington sent a militia to suppress the rebellion. In effect, he used federal power to crush a local, populist challenge—not exactly the kind of government action Tea Partyers seem to fancy. It may just be that the ranks of presidents provide poor models of executive restraint. Washington was the first—but hardly the last—to leave government larger and more powerful than he found it.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
The AI 'concierge' that will decide who you dateIn The Spotlight If the bots click, real life may follow – or that's the idea, says Bumble
-
Quiz of The Week: 11 - 17 MayPuzzles and Quizzes Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
Michelangelo – the last decades review: an 'absorbing' exploration of artThe Week Recommends New exhibition focuses on works from the final 30 years of the artist's long career
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion banSpeed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling BiblesSpeed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
-
Death of a dissidentOpinion How Navalny's fight against Putin will endure
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitnessIn Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
