We Can Do Better, America

"What would the Founders think?" is a fun game that the six conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court play, and the answer is usually that the Founders would agree with whatever present-day Republicans are trying to achieve.

I was also thinking about the Founders the other day when I saw this, which is President Trump's eldest son making a joke about his father throwing a sex toy off of the roof of the White House:

Specifically, I was thinking about George Washington. What would he think? Not about the sport of basketball or women playing that sport (although, let's face it, he'd probably have some interesting and unfortunate thoughts about those things). No, I was wondering what he’d think about our depraved political culture, about the up-is-down, black-is-white abandonment of objective truth, about the license that so many seem to feel they have to be their absolute worst, about, in other words, the utter ruination of both our personal interactions and our public square.

I like to think that he’d be appalled and that the written record backs that up. In case you didn’t know, he wrote a book about manners when he was a teenager. It's called Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, a collection of 110 rules for acting decently. In truth (because we really shouldn't tell a lie whilst talking about George), he really just copied some material from another book. Nevertheless, these are things that George Washington actually wrote down and reportedly actually cared about or at least cared about enough to use them to practice his penmanship, and it's hard not to think that we'd be better off if we followed George’s rules. How about these as a start:

1st: Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present.

56th: Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

58th: Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for it is a sign of a tractable and commendable nature; and in all cases of passion admit reason to govern.

73rd: Think before you speak; pronounce not imperfectly nor bring out your words too hastily, but orderly & distinctly.

110th: Labour to keep alive in your breast that little celestial fire called conscience.