Lori Falce: Washington, the reluctant president

George Washington did not want to be president.

He was a good general, as his victories in the Revolutionary War proved. He was a keen businessman. He thought of himself primarily as a farmer.

“While I realize the arduous nature of the task which is conferred on me and feel my inability to perform it, I wish there may not be reason for regretting the choice,” Washington said when informed of his election, according to biographer Ron Chernow.

I think about that every time election year rolls around — what is designed as a yearlong process that now seems to take all four years between one election and the next.

Today, the presidency is treated like a crown and the competition to wear it is as cutthroat as a back- alley knife fight.

And everyone wants in. Right now, there are eight candidates for this year’s Democratic nomination, but 21 others dropped out along the way.

In 2016, Donald Trump was the last man standing, but 16 other Republicans entered the cage match looking for a spot on the November ballot.

There are many ways a candidate today might differ from Washington. He didn’t go to college and had little formal education. He didn’t have a large portfolio of plans for how to do a job no one had ever done before. He didn’t have an exploratory committee or focus groups, and there were no fundraisers to build a campaign war chest.

And in spite of all that, he is the yardstick we judge our presidents by. Not despite the fact that he didn’t apply for the job, but perhaps because he never wanted it in the first place.

There is something inherently narcissistic about standing before the world and saying, “I am the only one who can run this country,” especially since in some ways, the president is just the carved mermaid on the prow of the governmental ship.

It isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Ambition harnessed for the national interest is good. Pride based in genuine skill is nothing to hide.

But there is still something genuinely stirring about a unanimous vote for a man who never asked to rule. There is something aspirational about everyone saying with a single voice that this is the person we trust — that even if he questions his value, we don’t.

As our primaries have become an opportunity for friends to bludgeon each other before proceeding to the sudden death of the general election, it seems unlikely that we will ever see that kind of acclamation again. It passed away with legends of wooden teeth and cherry trees.

He left office as he came in — humbly, questioning whether history would be kind and “the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion.”

Washington didn’t want to be president. He stepped forward when called, rather than stepping forward to be noticed. We may need more reluctant leaders.