Quid De Cogitatione? Glenn Rose
Twelve score and nine years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil chaos, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We could be meeting at a great foreign cemetery where lie brave American soldiers who died protecting our freedom and the freedom of a grateful ally. We could be meeting at any cemetery in our country where these veterans who stood against those who would take our freedom, came home to live in a nation indebted to their service. We come to dedicate these fields, the final resting place for those who gave their lives, that that nation might live.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled for our national cause, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here, have, thus far, so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall remain a continuing defender of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
These women and men, living and dead, gave their service to see the principles of our founders – that “all men are created equal…endowed with unalienable Rights…Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” – blossom into the promise that all people have these rights and protections under the flag of our nation.
Now embroiled in a great national crisis those rights are assailed. Due process, the cornerstone of our judicial system, is under attack. Mandates passed by Congress and signed by previous presidents are nullified by a new political correctness. Taxes – tariffs – are instituted by “royal” fiat without Congressional oversight. Geographic features are renamed by imperial decree. Government employees who fail to demonstrate fealty to an individual are purged; others are fired in the thousands for no reason, leaving government services hamstrung. Law enforcement officers who investigated possible unlawful behavior are fired. C ourt orders, Supreme and lower, ignored. Senior military officers retired early. A president searching for a gulag in the Caribbean and Central America to exile his miscreants and undeservings. A new unfounded aggression against our neighbors and allies, threatening an imperialistic grab for an unlawful expansion of our borders. Alliances that have secured world peace for 75 years contemned.
It is political cleansing and undertaking found only in nations where “rule of tyrant” supersedes “rule of law.”
Ronald Reagan’s vision of America is replaced by the jingoistic envy of a narcissist. No longer are we “a tall, proud city built on a hill,” but a vehicle for a mad King George III to support the whims of his imperial ego.
Our founders were mindful of the corruptions of unchecked rulers, so much so, that in our nascent country’s first official document, “The Declaration of Independence” they included this proviso to the rights of its citizens: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes...But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
When N.B.C.’s Kristen Welker asked Donald Trump,”… don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?” he replied, “I don’t know,” his go-to response to questions he can’t or doesn’t want to answer.
This lapse coming three months after declaring in his oath of office that, “I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Perhaps Trump has an excuse – an out – for being able to back out of this pledge to uphold the Constitution. He didn’t have his left hand on the Bible, so maybe those fingers were crossed.
Of course, the oath does state “to the best of my ability.” Maybe what we are getting is Trump’s best?
Maybe his apologists and epigones can offer a reasonable, wellconsidered explanation for this or any of his listed edicts and denials.
However, I am harassed with doubts.
