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Let us get back to our core principles......... 🦅
We all know there is a huge polarization in America,
especially, between the Democrats and the Republicans. Their
political-ideological division is quite evident within the House of
Representatives and the Senate.
Democrats and Republicans are deadlocked refusing to
compromise on the important issues that are vital for America and our
future wellbeing. For example, finding a rational solution for a new
stimulus bill or meeting in the middle of the great divide, to find a
compromise seems beyond the realm of possibilities in Washington, DC.
The two parties would rather come up with mere talking points to talk
past one another. It is also more than evident that our U.S. Government
has become dysfunctional, and nothing seems to be getting accomplished.
The Democratic leaders see the Republican Party as being
highjacked by the extreme conservative fringe. The Republican leaders on
the other hand view the Democratic Party as the ultra-liberal
progressive party.
A conservative talking point on Facebook is the claim that
Democrats want to change America into a socialist country. Another post I
read said liberalism is a mental disorder and what is needed is a
return to our biblical roots. The other side is arguing that
conservatives want to rewrite history to push their ideological agenda
on the American people, the same is being said by conservatives against
liberals.
Some of the religious right posting on social media have
gone as far as to say our Nation’s founding fathers were orthodox
Christians. However, there is no historical evidence to support their
claim, and history has proven time and time again that most but not all
of our nation’s founding fathers were Deists, not Christians.
Conservative leaders enjoy weaving into their speeches that
Abraham Lincoln was our greatest President and the first Republican
President. Most historians would not refute that claim because Lincoln
was by far a great historical President. They also bring up that Ronald
Reagan never wavered from his Christian orthodoxy and single-handedly
brought down the Soviet Union. Many historians would agree that Ronald
Reagan was indeed an above-average President but to say he was orthodox
in his beliefs and that he single-handedly brought down the Soviet Union
is a bit of a stretch.
Many of the religious right postings on social media seem to
lack historical knowledge, especially, with their outlandish claims
that Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan were born-again Christians. There
is no historical evidence to support that claim either. Perhaps, they
believe if they say it enough times over the internet history will
rewrite itself.
Rick Santorum states Liberalism is a social disease, I would
disagree with the former Republican Senator from Pennsylvania. Problems
facing our country are not caused by Liberalism but rather it’s the
polarization of ideologies within Government.
Christian Fundamentalists posting on Facebook sincerely
believe our Nation was founded on conservative Christian orthodoxy. They
should, however, take time to learn about our country’s heritage rather
than trying to push their religious agenda. Liberalism is not a social
disease nor is it the sole cause of the discord in Washington, DC. The
main problem is our government’s inability to reach a compromise and put
the needs of the American people foremost.
Liberal ideologies fill the pages of our history books; the
delegates that signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 were, for
example, considered radical liberals. Especially, by those who didn’t
want to rock the boat and enter a war with England. Most religious
leaders at that time argued that a war against England could not be won.
In Thomas Jefferson’s time during the forming of our great
American experiment, the Roman Catholic Church declared democracy an
immoral form of Government. The Pope at that time believed - America
does not recognize Christ and the church as its moral and governing
authority therefore its government is worldly and immoral. Thomas
Jefferson was considered the greatest liberal of all with his radical
idea of erecting a wall of separation between church and state.
Conservatives at the time declared him an atheist even though he was a
Deist.
Those who condemned slavery in the 1850s were also
considered bleeding-heart liberals. Unlike today many Democrats were
staunch racists during the abolitionist movement of the 1800s but their
party was divided. That division led to the first Republican to win the
Presidency in 1860. Abraham Lincoln only got 40% of the popular votes in
the election of 1860. His two opponents got 60% of the votes - 30% of
the votes going to each of his opponents. His two opponents were
pro-slavery and if the 1860 election were a two-way race Lincoln would
have lost due to his liberal ideals and history would have turned out
quite differently.
Unlike today the Republican Party from the mid to the late
1800s was the liberal progressive party. The Democratic Party back then
was the religious conservative party who campaigned on bible quotes.
They believed slavery was justified on religious grounds because the
bible says so.
Steven Douglas who ran against Lincoln accused him of being a
Deist because he never referred to god’s biblical word in his speeches.
Lincoln’s response, “…. when I do good … I feel good …… when I do bad, I
feel bad. Therefore, I do my best to do what is right, ….. to follow
the rules of goodness at all times, this is the religion I live by.”
Lincoln went on to say in response to Steven Douglas “…… I cannot
conceive a superior intelligence, which we refer to as God that would
concur with my opponent’s (Douglas) feeble, mediocre ramblings.” Lincoln
took a huge gamble by alienating himself from the religious
conservatives, but he spoke honestly, but many historians believe
Douglas won the debate among the pro-slavery crowd.
Lincoln was hated and despised as President because he did
not set out to please the citizenry by making the popular choices. He
rather put preserving the Union above all else. He understood history
was depending on the tough unpopular choice he had to make. He brought
our country through the greatest and bloodiest conflict our Nation ever
faced. Some historians put the death toll in the civil war at seven
hundred and twenty thousand. North against South, brother against
brother, every household experienced a great loss due to the death of a
loved one. The South experienced the most carnage and punishment by the
northern forces and each side passionately believed God was on their
side.
A reporter asked Lincoln, “Mr. President both sides say God
is on their side how can you both be right?” Lincoln’s response, “God is
always on the side of humanity, urging us, to concede to the will of
our higher angel, dwelling, within all of us.”
In the end, Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 elevated our
16th President to secular sainthood. His death occurred on the Christian
observance of Good Friday. In some way, his death symbolized and
represented the loss and pain that the country endured throughout the
war.
North and South mourned the death of Abraham Lincoln.
History however does not always concur with the myths and legends that
continue to surround our 16th President in popular culture. He
represented all that was worst in humanity and all that was best in
humanity. His goals for the southern reconstruction were not fulfilled
as he hoped they would be. It was due to his assassination and the
staunch racism and hatred of his successor, Andrew Johnson. Unlike,
Lincoln, the 17th President, Andrew Johnson, was on the wrong side of
history.
Afro-Americans were treated poorly in the south and the
southern whites got away with horrendous crimes against the southern
blacks. Southerners used the people of color as scapegoats for the Civil
War and took out all their hate and animosity against them.
The Ku Klux Klan commonly called the KKK or simply the Klan
was made up of both democrats and republicans. When the KKK emerged,
segregation soon followed, becoming the norm under the new Jim Crow laws
that were established in the southern states. It would take decades for
the civil rights movement to take root leading to extraordinary social
changes.
The mid-1950s and throughout the 1960s brought the civil
rights struggle to the national mainstream. Enlightened voices and
extraordinary oratory from people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and other
civil rights leaders brought the struggles of Afro-Americans to light.
Television visualized the injustices waged against people of color in
the south and the dissonance of white supremacy.
President John F Kennedy tried to pass massive civil rights
legislation through congress, but conservative republicans and democrats
blocked the bills. It wasn’t until JFK’s assassination that President
Lyndon Johnson was able to push Kennedy’s civil rights bills through
congress and the Civil Rights Act was signed into law in 1964 bringing
an end to segregation. The voting rights act in 1965 was passed making
it illegal to interfere with a person’s right to vote. The fair housing
rights act in 1968 came into law making it illegal to refuse to rent or
sell property to a person based on that person’s race.
Southern Governors opposed the new civil rights laws like
Governor George Wallace (January 1963 – January 1967) of Alabama, a
proud racist. He had no qualms about announcing his racism on national
television. He said, “there was segregation, yesterday, they’ll be
segregation, today, and they’ll be segregation, tomorra’, as long as I’m
Govana’ of the mighty State of Alabama’.” George Wallace ran for
Governor on that very slogan and won his first term in November of 1962.
He and other southern Governors ignored the new civil rights laws. They
accused the Democratic leaders in Washington of being soft, and
bleeding-heart liberals, for interfering with the southern way of life.
At various times throughout LBJ’s Presidency National Guard units had to
be called into various southern states to help enforce the Civil rights
laws.
President Johnson escalated the Vietnam War by sending
thousands of ground troops to Vietnam in hopes of winning over the
hardline southern conservatives. They accused the President of being
soft on communism. Those who opposed the war were looked upon as
bleeding-heart liberals by the conservatives. Most historians today
would agree that the Vietnam War was a huge blunder, and that Vietnam
never posed an imminent threat to the United States.
Decades earlier when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected
President many Republicans during the Great Depression of the 1930s
accused FDR as being a socialist for his New Deal policies. His welfare
programs also caused many Republican conservatives to accuse Roosevelt
not just of being a socialist but of being a bleeding-heart liberal as
well.
Conservatives on Facebook always point to Ronald Reagan as
the last of the great conservative Presidents. If they took the time to
read his personal letters a different picture would emerge. Reagan was
once asked by a reporter “is Jesus Christ your personal savior?” Reagan
responded, “I don’t wear religion on my sleeve.” The religious right at
the time accused Reagan of being Christian in name only because he never
brought up Jesus in his speeches and rarely worshiped in a Church on
Sunday. Reagan’s personal writings show him to be ahead of his time on
many social issues and he was not as conservative as the religious right
on Facebook makes him out to be. In 1983, Reagan signed into law, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (third Monday in January) a national holiday
to commemorate the life of Dr. King.
If an Abraham Lincoln or a Ronald Reagan were to run for
President today, they would not be able to get their names on the
Republican ballot. The religious right would reject them for not being
conservative enough.
In 1960 when John F Kennedy’s Catholicism became a campaign
issue Kennedy responded, “The wall of separation between Church and
State is absolute,” but many conservatives say Kennedy was wrong.
A religious conviction was never a prerequisite for
political office in our Nation’s early years. This has become a modern
phenomenon that diminishes the electoral process in the United States.
John F Kennedy was correct in stating the wall of separation is absolute
because that is what our founding fathers intended it to be.
Religious litmus tests for political fitness within our
country goes against the very core principles that our country was
founded on. I do, however, agree that the founding principles that made
our country great are becoming somewhat lost. It cannot be denied, our
founding fathers did not set out to create a Christian Theocracy they
intended to create a just society. They also had a benevolent attitude
toward religion in general, and Christianity in particular.
Our Nation’s founding fathers believed education based on
reason, logic, and a virtuous upbringing is needed for a just society to
bear fruit. We cannot have a just society without a virtuous electorate
and that too is being lost in our country. Religiosity being cloaked
into Government policy by the conservative fringe will only diminish our
nation’s greatness even further. We also need to re-apply the immortal
words of John F Kennedy - “Ask not what your country can do for you but
what you can do for your country.” I say this because today many are
asking what our Government can do for “ME” and that includes many of
today’s politicians. Common decency and service to our country seem to
have been foremost in Kennedy’s generation.
Service to our country and common decency are also part of
our country’s founding principles, unfortunately, they too are eroding
in society. Politicians need to move away from an entitlement mentality
to a self-worth mentality, by asking themselves, “what can I do to make
our country a better place to live.”
I liked telling my students, “fools talk because they can,
the wise on the other hand, choose their words carefully.” Words matter
and how we communicate with one another can be just as important as what
we say to one another.
There are no easy solutions for the social issues permeating
our society but we as citizens can take more personal responsibility
for the negative issues surrounding us. We can empower ourselves and
others by voting in this upcoming election. We can also accomplish the
needed changes in our society through education, volunteerism, and
involving ourselves in outreach and community-based programs. Putting
ourselves in the service of others not only helps our community but it
also enhances our well-being.
Always with love
Thomas F O'Neill
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