Good morning. It is Friday, February 16th. I'm your host Anastasia Glova. I know that just

as I am you are all preparing for a long holiday weekend, courtesy of our nation's first

president George Washington. But I also hope that you take a moment to think

about the meaning of President's Day and the legacy of one of the most important

founding fathers.

Today, David Bowes, Cato's Executive Vice President, has a few words to share about George Washington.

Who is the man on the $1 bill?

Well, George Washington was the man who established the American Republic, and we've had a Republic for so long that we forget

how unusual it was. There hadn't really been a popular Republican government in the world before.

And so the American Revolutionaries were trying to do something different.

They were trying to genuinely create a self-governing system that would protect liberty and they wanted to have elected

officials but they worried about the dangers of majoritarian democracy.

So they tried to create a republic and George Washington was the man who had held them

together through the revolution, had brought the country together in his person.

He sort of incarnated the values that the Americans were trying to

achieve and so Washington was the man who led the revolutionary army against the British Empire. He then served as

the first president and most importantly he stepped down after two terms and

again every president steps down after two terms now. It's a law.

And for 150 years, it wasn't a law, but it was always done.

But we forget. People didn't use to do that.

George Washington established that principle for the first time.

Would you say that he was one of the great thinkers of his time?

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