George Washington's Birthday

I have been reading Sam Francis in Shots Fired; he argues that the old holiday of celebrating Washington's birthday should be restored since we should not exalt one branch of the Federal Government, poiting out that we do not do the same for the two other branches. (Let's not give Congress any ideas.) Moreover, we should not celebrate the bad presidents. (And this would include Lincoln, who is usually linked to Washington on this day, even by "conservatives.") Paleos and traditional conservatives make it a point of defending the achievements of great American men such as the "Founding Fathers," while not forgetting their flaws. What identity can we have when we fail to honor those who came before us? Respect for the constitutional order of a polity is not the same as the venerating of ancestors, but part of the basis for honoring one's ancestors are their achievements for the community.

Leftists will talk about how the country was founded upon imperialism. While they may be right in some of their criticisms, how can white leftists hate their past or dissociate themselves from it, even when they raise themselves up for admiration as one way to compensate? Perhaps their narcissism is not so extreme -- they'll remember the radicals that came before them or look to them as role models. Still, it is more than likely that their predecessors viewed themselves as being "separate." Any natural basis of identity is slowly squeezed out in favor of sharing a common ideology, a new church as it were. (And Christianity does not even go so far as to blot out natural distinctions of identity. They may not be the most important aspect of a Christian's identity, but they do inform our roles and vocations.) What can be done to repair the disconnect between them and those who came before them, the discontinuity in history? Very little.

It irked me somewhat that many people were cheering when Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States was mentioned by one of the Stairwell Sisters during their performance, but what else should I expect from Berkeley. (They also talked about being part of the 99%.)

Nonetheless, how many of us are simply pretending to have an American identity, when we have very little connection to the United States of the late 18th century and 19th century either in our own family history or through the people with whom we associate? We hold on to the national myths because we identify with the "nation" in the abstract, possessing citizenship and consuming American mass marketed culture...

It is not just the leftists who disavow the founding fathers; some traditionalist Catholics also do the same in the name of combating liberalism. It would seem that a people can remain the same, for the most part, while the constitution of their polity changes. If we follow Aristotle: the formal element of the community is its constitution, the material element the people who compose it? Consequently, when the constitution is changed, the old community no longer exists and is replaced by another. Is it possible, though, to distinguish between the achievements of a community as such and that of a people?  

If the state of Virginia were to pass away and some Virginians remain in the area, would they need to adopt a new name for their people? Or could they [their tribe?] retain the name as a memory of what once was?



Fr. Rutler: The Father of Our Country
Out of Virtue, Greatness: Washington as Aristotle's Magnanimous Man by Dr. Jose Yulo (via Insight Scoop)
Face it Buchanan, America is Changing