As we enter a new age of Republican grandstanding, I am sorely tempted to spew a little venom and bile. Certainly, the newest crew of hypocrites and corporate shills deserves it. Though I won't rule that out for the future, I won't do that today. Rather, I'd like to remind us all what the Republican party once was, and ought to be still. A few words from the last Republican president who had not sold his soul.
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"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."
"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it."
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing."
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
"It is far more important to be able to hit the target than it is to haggle over who makes a weapon or who pulls a trigger."
"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without."
"The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good."
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Perhaps it is too much to hope for that those Republicans who will read the Constitution from the House floor will actually listen to it as well. Imagine putting Eisenhower's words into the mouth of Bush, Cheney, or Boehner, or worse: Limbaugh or Beck. All you will get is a pathetic joke. That is the state of things today.
Those who would "restore honor" in Washington would do well to remember the last Republican president who had any.
Respectfully Yours,
Cricket
8 comments:
Hi Cricket!
Happy New Year! Hope 2011 is a bang-up smashing good one for you, and yours!
interesting set of quotes from ike. thanks for sharing them.
Thanks for sharing the quotes - I hadn't read some of them before. He certainly had war experience to speak from. Happy New Year!
The reading of the constitution is not read truly. The reader changes or eliminates what they choose to. What is the point of that anyway?
"A few words from the last Republican president who had not sold his soul."
Good for you to point that out.
I listened to a few of them reading it and it was a joke! It only portrayed that the world does move on and we need to acknowledge that sometimes amendments are necessary to keep up with the times.
My husband, a career military man, has the Silver Star from tough fighting days near the DMZ in Vietnam. There are too many who think that because he's military he looooves war. Not so. Those who've experienced real combat know how terrible war is.
Ike knew what he was talking about.
LOVE THIS!
Reminds me of when my grammar school class saw his inaguration on TV; it was awesome and something I've never forgotten.
Jane
Great quotes from a good man. Would that we had more of his type in government now, whatever label is affixed to them.
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