Tag Archive for Abraham Lincoln

Definitions To Work With

What are the various types of “republican,” and how are they defined?

I have learned to despise the term “Republican In Name Only” (a.k.a., RINO). My hatred for it is, likely, because the term is almost always lobbed around thoughtlessly with no regard for meaning or context, but simply as a foul insult meant to disparage a political opponent, and often by someone who’s lacking for constructive rhetoric. (By that standard, “RINO” is no better than “Nazi,” “communist,” or “faggot,” in that the value of the term is cheapened when it’s reduced to a common insult.) Quite frankly, there are better ways to address the intra-party philosophical divide than to randomly sling profanity around; and this is coming from a career Sailor. However, in order to constructively address the problem, because other terms also get abused so badly, I think that perhaps some effort ought to be expended in pursuit of some basic definitions that concisely and completely identify the various types of “republicans” present in today’s party apparatus (both establishment and grassroots).

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This Too Shall Pass

Abraham_Lincoln-1858Abraham Lincoln from  in an address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, September 30, 1859, offered a thought that offers both hope and caution. (from The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln )

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”

As Lincoln opined, things both good and bad; as a part of the flow of time, will eventually, simply, cease.

Whether one is to take it as a warning, and advisement to actively protect what has been made good, or a promise that certain blemishes will eventually fade is certainly upon the perspective [of the] bearer of such impairment or achievement.

And it is the perfect sight of historical fact under which we can see both sides in play.  The abolition of the American slavery, and the more recent loss of Liberty earned by the blood of our forefathers.  The routing of a scourge of man set to control man, and the promise that would prevent it from ever happening again disappearing under the most false pretense of populist desire.

Recent events involving an organized effort to remove a Michigan defender of what is good, through such false pretense has in its operative design a working model of historical precedent.  To make great achievement ‘pass’ all that opposition must do is wait for a plausible flaw.

Be it truth or not matters little to those of destructive intent; when the objective is to make what is good, wither and fall.

I await eagerly, the passing of a current pretense of despair that will indeed happen; but knowing that with time, it too, shall return.

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