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"With malice toward none, with charity toward all; with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the
work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do
all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among
ourselves, and with all nations."
President Abraham Lincoln
Second Inaugural, 1865 |
| There
was never a serious risk that government would perish from this earth.
That's not what President Lincoln was worried about at his Gettysburg
Addrss. |
| As
President Reagan once quipped, "A government agency is the nearest thing
to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth." We still have
federal programs today which were designed to address issues during the
19th century which have long since become irrelevant. The powers
and costs of government creep out of control over time, despite good
intentions. People have the power to stop it, but generally don't. |
| As
President Lincoln correctly perceived, it has been a great and constant
struggle to assure that government of the people, by the people, and for
the people shall not perish from the earth. The more natural
course of events is for governments to keep growing in power until they
become intolerable. |
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greatest threats to our freedoms can come from within, as in a house
divided against itself. Rather than being defeated by external
threats, great civilizations have quickly collapsed from within. |
| The
danger doesn't necessarily come from internal conflicts. We made
it through the Civil War, and many other challenges. We have
worked out our differences on many issues over the years. The
ideal was to "create a more perfect Union" - one which would evolve and
adapt to changing times by the power of people working together.
The Constitution created a solid foundation reflecting fundamental
values which diverse people could share, but which also carefully
protected people against abuses of power. |
| We
are not political enemies in this country. We do have very
fundamentally different views about the appropriate role of the federal
government in our lives, based on some very different values between
conservatives and liberals. We need to work out our differences
and achieve progress without rancor, but also without compromising on
the basic values which have made this country great.
The concept that a federal government serves the
people in a limited role, rather than through whatever powers and
programs the current federal leaders may think to be a good idea at the
time, is a very fundamental difference. It is not a minor point.
It is of lasting importance, because bureaucracies last.
It is not the role of the federal government to create
fair or equal outcomes for all, or to favor one group over any other.
There is a difference between defending equal opportunities and
mandating outcomes. |
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