(November 25, 2014 at 11:34 am)DeistPaladin Wrote: A bit of US trivia for you: George Washington was NOT the first president of the US.
That title went to John Hancock, who was the president during the Articles of Confederation, prior to when our Constitution was written.
This is a part of our history that our textbooks gloss over. I didn't learn about it until college. In retrospect, I don't know why I didn't question the gap between the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783 to the signing of the Constitution in 1787.
The truth is that our founders' first attempt at creating a government was a dismal failure. We were barely united at all, unable to pay our war debts or maintain order between the states. At one point, two states nearly went to war with one another. John Hancock was little more than a figurehead. We were so uneasy about a new monarchy that we went too far to the other extreme, creating a government that couldn't maintain order at all.
I'm fond of the "child of Britain" analogy to describe our country as I find the metaphor descriptive when you look at our founding as a nation. Using that anthropomorphous metaphor, we can describe our war of independence as an adolescent rebellion (we were the hell-raising, wild, rebellious one while our northern sibling Canada was the "good child", or at least the mellow stoner who lived in the parent's basement, moving out of the house only gradually). After storming out of the house, we tried to reinvent the wheel. Then after failing, we asked ourselves "how does mom do it". We copied the British government as it existed at the time making a few changes (most notably spinning out the judiciary into its own branch.
Whenever I explain our seemingly Byzantine government system to British people, I tell them it's based on the government they had at the time. The old struggles between monarch and parliament are now reflected in our struggles between president and congress.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Even the hell-raising rebellious child winds up becoming like their parents.
So as much as we like to gloss over our founding fathers' disastrous first attempt at a government and how, under questionable legal conditions, they hit the "do over" button in 1787, it's still part of our history. John Hancock was technically our first president.
The question is, how do you know who was the first President?? Regardless of what answer you give, you are relying on what you were told from someone else.
(November 25, 2014 at 11:34 am)DeistPaladin Wrote: As for Jesus, I've already had this debate but if you want to offer a rematch because you think you can do better, feel free.
Rematch?
