Trump represents what the founders were fighting against

Thomas Paine said it: 'Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent'

- LZ GRANDERSON COLUMNIST

CHIP SOMODEVILLA Getty Images CAPITOL tourists stand in front of a painting of George Washington resigning his commission.

GEORGE WASHINGTON was quite the man. Life handed him the keys to this brand-new country, and instead of clinging to the steering wheel until he drew his last breath, he pulled over and let someone else drive.

It was this peaceful transfer of power that made America exceptional — and Washington the defining figure of American masculinity. Even after the American Revolution, the dominant model for rule around the world was heredity. Kings begat kings, and power was passed down like grandpa’s cottage in the woods. For centuries, rulers governed not because of proven character but by accidental birth.

And the founders hated it.

Read Thomas Paine’s 250-year-old essay, “Common Sense,” and you see few things bothered Colonial men more than servitude to geopolitical nepo-babies. It’s evident in the writings and personal libraries of our earliest presidents, such as Thomas Jefferson. You can trace that sentiment all the way back to the Greek philosophers whom the founders studied before this nation began.

Their aversion wasn’t to wealth and power. It was about what can happen to a person who grows up knowing nothing but wealth and power.