PROGRESSIVE USE OF LINCOLNS ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG

In response to a progressive huffer quoting the Gettysburg Address.
aR2: I find your post very encouraging to have you quote one of the most revered conservative Presidents in our history. It is mystifying how you can be against realistic and honest assessment of our national condition and the medicine needed to heal it. Four years ago we were mesmerized by rhetoric and the promises to fix our broken economy, to bring our people together and reunite us as one people under our flag, to create a consensus and an attitude change within our government that would fix Washington and our political weaknesses. Clearly that did not happen and we are confronted on that same side with confrontational and divisive escapism. Our country is in dire need of responsible leadership not pandering which we can ill afford. The President that you quote did not shy away from his responsibilities and he most certainly did not lead from behind. He fought gallantly to re-unite our country and to fully implement the intent of our founding fathers that all men are created equal. That means equal opportunity to achieve to their abilities not that of equal stature physically, or in any other way, through the power of government but rather through the power of the people.
About Rachel Maddow
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Presidential Respect, the man or the office

A few days ago one of my friends on facebook said shame on me for calling our president and idiot when I shared a campaign poster. I will respond by saying I respect the office of President and consider it to be a position of sacred trust not only for our country but for the free World. I do not respect any man who blatantly does not uphold the oath of office when it comes to upholding the laws of our country and performs not for the good of our country but utilizes his position for his own gain and personal power. We are plagued all too frequently by politicians on both sides of the aisle who act in the interest of re-election in lieu of the best interests of our country. It is far too easy in our country to maintain a position of political power by gifts to special interests and by pandering group by group. Our country is now at a critical juncture and the hypocrisy of pandering is all too evident. We have been like small children on a diet of ice cream and cake just to keep us obedient and thankful, much to the detriment health, when we should have been given real nourishment. Four years ago we were mesmerized by rhetoric and the promises to fix our broken economy, to bring our people together and reunite us as one people under our flag, to create a consensus and an attitude change within our government that would fix Washington and our political weaknesses. We did get his attempt to fundamentally change our country, we did get his “change the way the rest of the World perceives us”, and we did get a guaranteed "we're out of here" that emboldened our enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention giving latitude and nose thumbing rights to Iran, Russia and China. We were promised transparency in our government that would clearly display what the American society would be getting as new policy and laws both in process and content. Instead of transparency and leadership from the executive branch we got the same thing we got from him as a senator, a vote of present while totally abdicating his responsibilities. The first two years of this Presidential cycle gave the office the full strength of both houses of our law and directional politic. Instead of utilizing this opportunity to constructively correct our economic ills, as promised, the total effort turned to the purchase of political IOU’s through the passing of the “affordable care act”, the use of our capital to fund ideological goals of the Progressive Democrats, and providing tools to provide the unions with increased funding and membership. This was not accomplished with the transparency promised during the election cycle, but instead was accomplished under the leadership of the Senate and the Congress. The methodology used to push the ACA through was far from transparent, far from uniting our country, and far from being responsible. Leadership is not allowing your surrogates complete control of your ship and it is most certainly not accomplished from the rear end or behind.