Two-thirds of his farewell address was about the new rising political parties. He did not understand these parties, so he wanted them to put aside their differences for the common good of the new nation. Of course there were those Jeffersonians and Hamiltons out there who simply could not do this.
The most important advice in this address was Washington's wishes that the US did not get involved with alliances and stay out of foreign wars. This is probably only meant in the immediate time period when the US was still relatively weak. What if it wasn't?
Where would the US be if they were not constantly getting involved in wars? What about if more focus was given to the actual states instead of policies such as the Good Neighbor policy and others regarding Latin America? What if America didn't try so hard to be a world power (Philippines, which we eventually gave back anyway.) What if we just took Washington's advice?
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If we followed what Washington said we would of gone the way of Americas first model Athens. Athens was eventaully destoryed, by Sparta, after a while they regrouped only to be conquered yet again. Athens orginally intervened all over the mediternannen however it eventually adopted leadership that endorsed Isolationism (it was caught between the two before its war with Sparta, it had enemys near such as Sparta and due to an attack by the Dorians (an ancient Hellenic tribe that was recorded by Ancient Greek writers) they pursued Isolationism and eventually lost a large amount of their power. Their unwilligness to defend themselves and try to better the area near them lead to their downfall. If they had changed and tryed to pacify Peloponnese or Crete, they could have gained allies from the states and used them aganist the Dorians and later the Spartans.
Interesting, i didn't know that. I don't think Washington was preaching isolationism, he just didn't want us to get involved when it wasn't necessary. Of course you have to have allies, so it's hard to say where to draw the line.
Thanks for your response