Thread by @GREENESJ333

Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote, "This year the USA is celebrating its 250th year since the Declaration of Independence was signed and published.

But I want to point out another part of US history.
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This is also the 225th year since George Washington’s final address to the American people and Congress was read.

There were two important warnings in Washington’s written remarks upon ending his term in office that are relevant today—relevant for Americans and
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maybe relevant for peoples elsewhere as well.

Washington warned about two things:

He warned about what he called “entangling alliances.” He reasoned that alliances were not bad, but that as history changes circumstances,
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the USA should not see itself as linked to the fate of other nations’ interests unless those alliances were open and honest and based on shared goals. Today, NATO seems to have become anti-USA, having reacted negatively to the US demand...
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that they actually honor their treaty obligations, and then, what to do with Turkey, which seems to work against NATO and Western interests while hiding under NATO protection.
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Washington warned against trusting political parties. Why? Because he believed that too often parties put their interests in winning, in control, and in the financial benefits of power as more important than the interests of the people, and
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that too many made parties and personalities into their idols to worship, voting blindly as if it were a religion and not a matter of what policies work best for the nation.

Perhaps Americans should familiarize themselves with the wisdom of the Founders of the nation.
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But then what Washington wrote might apply as well in the UK, Australia, Germany, France, and others, where too many voters vote for a party just because of loyalty to that party, or more often because of false beliefs about what a party still represents."
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