The most recent Real Clear Politics polling average finds nearly two-thirds of all Americans  think the country is on the wrong track. Real wages are down for 22 straight months, inflation has people worried about the security of their economy, and we are, to recall the words of Jimmy Carter, suffering through a period of malaise.

Not all of this is the president’s fault. He did promise during his inaugural address to bring us all together, and not only has he failed, but through his harsh rhetoric he’s further divided us.  But the problems run much deeper. We have lost confidence in our exceptionalism, thanks in no small part to the perversions of the American story now being taught to our children.

It’s a trend that must be reversed. We cannot continue as a nation if the critics of the American founding are allowed to win the argument that some of our faults are, if you will, baked into the cake. Therefore, the cake must be destroyed and we must begin again.

Nonsense. The American ideal of equality before the law may have taken too long to become meaningful to us all, but democracy is a process, a lesson taught to us by George Washington, whose birthday we are soon to observe.

At one time, Washington’s birthday was a major occasion and an opportunity to focus on why America is the exceptional place it has come to be. Remember, despite what the critics say, people from around the world are fighting to get in. No one, aside from the occasional Hollywood celebrity who usually fails to follow through on a promise to leave, is trying to get out.

Washington’s story is inspirational. Now, because we refer to his birthday as Presidents’ Day his significance has been allowed to erode over time. Yet can any figure now on the national stage even come close to Washington’s achievements? He was, as the eulogist said at his passing, “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Leader of the fight to secure America’s independence. President of the constitutional convention. Pioneer, agronomist and planter. Successful farmer. Accomplished horseman and dancer. Lover. A leader who nonetheless open his home at Mt. Vernon to anyone who came calling.

What Washington told us about the need to limit the powers of government remains relevant today. His wise leadership guaranteed the survival of our republic in its earliest days so it could become the greatest, freest, most prosperous, most generous society ever to exist. Despite his failure to fully embrace the Jeffersonian promise of equality for all, he must not be consigned to the pantheon of the mediocre.

That is the objective of the cultural commentators and pseudo-academics who now insist on emphasizing his ownership of slaves over his accomplishments. Talk of his greatness has been made unfashionable.

This is unfortunate. Washington the man was once a venerated American institution, purposefully set apart from men who followed him into the presidency. Even those who do not subscribe to the so-called “Great Man” theory of history must acknowledge his centrality to the creation and survival of a nation founded on the idea of liberty that ended up changing the world for the better.

All this should have been foreseen when the nation chose, for the most mundane of reasons, to end the celebration of Washington’s Birthday as a day to consider the man, his flaws – which were mercifully few – and his greatness. He deserves a special place of honor, his birthday a national day of celebration and remembrance.

We cannot move forward toward a greater, brighter future if we cannot bring the nation and its people together. Washington can be our rallying point. It is time for Congress to restore Washington’s Birthday to the national calendar and move it back to February 22, where it belongs.

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Copyright 2023 Peter Roff distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Peter Roff, a former United Press International and U.S. News & World Report columnist and political writer, is now affiliated with several Washington-D.C.-based public policy organizations as well as the Trans-Atlantic Leadership Network. Contact Roff at [email protected], and follow him on Twitter @TheRoffDraft.