Subvert Quotes
Gaming the system is the process of finding loopholes or arranging things so that you can get around the law and usually do just what is prohibited in a way that is not a criminal offense. It is done mostly by corporations trying to avoid laws and regulations, but government officials in the Executive Branch often do the same thing to get around the laws which have been passed but the current administration now finds inconvenient.
Washington is warning the American people against the negative impact that opposing political parties could have on the country. During his presidency he witnessed the rise of the Democratic-Republican party in opposition to the Federalists and worried that future political squabbles would undermine the concept of popular sovereignty in the United States.
This quotation is one of the most powerful indictments of religion in the political sphere. Historically, religions have supported the status quo in political society even. However, individual clerics have been in the forefront of many if not most of the movements toward freedom and democracy. For example, American religious institutions general supported slavery and legal discrimination thereafter, yet clerics were major abolutionists and major contributors to the Civil Rights Movement. Even today, American churches are the most racially segregated institutions left in America. See {620780} for his view on Christianity in particular.
