Link: Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address
Let me put it another way. The American experiment in self-government is based entirely on the core tenet that the people own the country. Every American citizen owns 100% of the United States of America. It naturally follows that all political power is derived from the consent of the people.
It seems that there are millions of people who think that the candidates who win elections are the "leaders" of the nation. They are not. Elected officers of all governments in this country are employees of the people. Furthermore, every couple of years, the people get to do a job performance evaluation of their employees. The people may fire any of their employees, for any reason. Or, for no reason.
We have gotten away from personal involvement in politics. Far too many of us do not do the basic work necessary to make informed decisions about these job evaluations. Far too many of us are content to acquire "information" about our employees from biased sources, instead of making an effort to find out the facts for ourselves. These days doing that work is a lot easier than ever before. But it still requires some time and diligence.
This is not the first time in our history that things have become so bitterly divided. It's not even the second time, or third time. It is a routine occurrence. Back in 1838, a 29-year-old lawyer named Abraham Lincoln found it necessary to speak out and remind his audience that the only way the United States could possibly fail was if the people abandoned their solemn responsibility to support the Constitution and the rule of law.
It is time for all of us to stop the screaming and the blaming and the fictitious slandering, and start to behave like intelligent, serious adults. That is when this political climate will be fixed.
Responses