This is Not Us

Watching the United States Presidential debate last night, I was struck by just how far over the edge we’ve fallen from “Presidential”. I’ve known this, as you have, but it was hammered home like an iron spike to the skull last night. And so I woke seeking inspiration from better men (so far) who have held the Presidency. And their words remind me we’re bigger than one man, but that we must rise up to remind ourselves and the current resident of the White House of that fact. This thing we saw last night? It’s a part of us, but on the whole the people of this country are good people who want to rise above the worst traits of humanity. Perhaps former Presidents might remind the current one that this is not who we are. This is not us. But then again, I suppose he won’t listen.

“The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.” – George Washington

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.” – Abraham Lincoln

“The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Many people are always saying the Presidency is too big a job for any one man. When I hear this assertion, I always try to point out that a single man must make the final decisions that affect the whole, but that proper organization brings to him only the questions and problems on which his decisions are needed. His own job is to be mentally prepared to make those decisions and then to be supported by an organization that will make sure they are carried out.” – Dwight D Eisenhower

“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” – John F Kennedy

“John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many.” – Lyndon B Johnson

“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.” – John Adams