#13 - Psuedo Politico #1: post washington

Today i had the chance to teach some American Political History to classes of 8th graders. The topic was on our (american) government from 1796-1800 with the retirement of Washington (his advice to the nation upon his exit), the presidency of Adams (in dealing with the trouble with France & the XYZ Affair), the split of political parties (federalists and democratic-republicans), and Jefferson and Madison's opposition of big government (kentucky and vigina resolutions). These are some of my favorite events in the history of american politics. We covered quite a few topics on which i have very strong opinions (foreign aid, state's rights, and political parties) granted i did not share my opinions with the classes, but discussing this today helped me decide to write something i've been meaning to write for a long time. Some opinions which i have avoided sharing for fear of becoming to enraged and for fear of it becoming an incredible rant which illustrates how nuts i am compared to my peers. I also have refrained from writing about these kind of topics because in some ways i feel another stupid blog about politics is not what this world needs. Nor do my political views really matter, but as this is an experimental writing project i guess it will be okay to occasionally try some experiments that deal with political concepts.

For those of you who aren't familiar with, aren't interested in, or have forgotten american history you can ignore the rest of this post. I don't feel the need to educate my readers on the events of 1796-1800 but will instead be providing my opinions and interpretations of the people/events mentioned in the next paragraph.

I'll start with the whole "spirit of party" thing that Washington was so concerned about. Then move onto some thoughts about foreign involvement/aid. Finally a short section on the whole state's rights issue. These are issues on which i could write entire books about, so i will try to keep it short and to the point.

*due to tiredness and several re-writes this piece will be finished soon