Washington, George
1789–1797

Washington's Farewell Address is the urtext on the dangers of 'the spirit of faction' that 'agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies' and 'foments occasionally riot and insurrection' — he warned specifically against leaders who would put party loyalty above country. Paxton's primary-campaign assault on a sitting Republican senator, his impeachment for abuse of office, and his alliance with a political movement explicitly built around personal loyalty to a leader are the precise pattern Washington feared. Talarico's anti-faction framing through term limits, anti-corruption package, refusal to take corporate PAC money, and 'coffee with the NRA member' civility tracks Washington's institutional restraint. He loses points on his expanded-federal-government economic agenda, which Washington would have found troubling. The most provoking thing about this grade is that the candidate calling himself a Republican scores worst against the founder of the American republic on the founder's central concern.