I am reading many posts and MSM articles, letters, etc., of people throwing in the towel, promising not to work for the 2010 and 2012 elections, re election, etc. of Democrats, incumbents, the President. They do not need listing as we all see them.
Maybe I am getting old, and maybe I am too much of a history buff, as my wife and children would agree, but I urge a bit of perspective to the writers and readers of these folks who are giving up and urging the rest of us to give up on the promises of a year ago when many of us were lucky enough to be on the Mall in DC.
I am old enough to remember seeing an incredibly inspiring speech on our black and white tv as a high school student when a young President stood in a cold Washington, DC and said some of the following:
The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.
. . . .
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
http://www.historyplace.com/...
I did not know that within the decade there would be a Vietnam War that many attributed to the "pay any price, bear any burden" policy and that I would be spending a few years in the Army as a result.
I do remember, however, that shortly after that famous and moving inauguration speech of President Kennedy that he accepted full responsibility for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. (Oddly enough, when I was in the Army I served with some who had been involved in the training of those who were in the invasion force.)
For those of you too young to remember, see the following:
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as La Batalla de Girón, or Playa Girón in Cuba), was an unsuccessful attempt by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba with support from US government armed forces, to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the exile combatants in three days
. . . .
Kennedy was angered with the CIA's failure and claimed he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind."[56]
. . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
An then there is FDR and the defeat of his proposed changes to the Supreme Court even though he had a landslide re election and total control, it seemed, of Congress. For those who are not familiar with that episode, see
Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937
Roosevelt, however, emboldened by the triumphs of his first term, set out in 1937 to consolidate authority within the government in ways that provoked powerful opposition. Early in the year, he asked Congress to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court so as to allow him to appoint members sympathetic to his ideas and hence tip the ideological balance of the Court. This proposal provoked a storm of protest.
In one sense, however, it succeeded: Justice Owen Roberts switched positions and began voting to uphold New Deal measures, effectively creating a liberal majority in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish and National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, thus departing from the Lochner v. New York era and giving the government more power in questions of economic policies. Journalists called this change "the switch in time that saved nine." Recent scholars have noted that since the vote in Parrish took place several months before the court-packing plan was announced, other factors, like evolving jurisprudence, must have contributed to the Court's swing. The opinions handed down in the spring of 1937, favorable to the government, also contributed to the downfall of the plan. In any case, the "court packing plan," as it was known, did lasting political damage to Roosevelt and was finally rejected by Congress in July.
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
With the newest Supreme Court decision opening up the money spigots in campaigns we are seeing posts calling for the adding of seats to the Supreme Court just like what FDR tried to do when he supposedly controlled Congress.
The point is clear, I expect, which is that failures of Presidents in efforts to meet lofty and inspiring goals and in making major overhauls of our system when the President is inspiring, charismatic, brilliant and in seeming control of Congress, is not really a good reason to throw in the towel, quit the efforts to support D's and give up a year before a mid term and three years before a general election.
It seems so obvious to me that I wonder at those who seem so short sighted and are abandoning the effort and calling on others to do so.