Let us get back to our core principals ......... ??

We all know there is a huge polarization in America, especially, between the Democrats and the Republicans. Their political-ideological division is quite evident within the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Democrats and Republicans are deadlocked refusing to compromise on the important issues that are vital for America and our future wellbeing. For example, finding a rational solution for a new stimulus bill or meeting in the middle of the great divide, to find a compromise seems beyond the realm of possibilities in Washington, DC. The two parties would rather come up with mere talking points to talk past one another. It is also more than evident that our U.S. Government has become dysfunctional and nothing seems to be getting accomplished.

The Democratic leaders see the Republican Party as being highjacked by the extreme conservative fringe. The Republican leaders on the other hand view the Democratic Party as the ultra-liberal progressive party.

A conservative talking point on Facebook is the claim that Democrats want to change America into a socialist country. Another post I read said liberalism is a mental disorder and what is needed is a return to our biblical roots. The other side is arguing that conservatives want to rewrite history to push their ideological agenda on the American people, the same is being said by conservatives against liberals.

Some of the religious right posting on social media have gone as far as to say our Nation’s founding fathers were orthodox Christians. However, there is no historical evidence to support their claim and history has proven time and time again that most but not all of our nation’s founding fathers were Deists, not Christians.

Conservative leaders enjoy weaving into their speeches that Abraham Lincoln was our greatest President and the first Republican President. Most historians would not refute that claim because Lincoln was by far a great historical President. They also bring up that Ronald Reagan never wavered from his Christian orthodoxy and single-handedly brought down the Soviet Union. Many historians would agree that Ronald Reagan was indeed an above-average President but to say he was orthodox in his beliefs and that he single-handedly brought down the Soviet Union is a bit of a stretch.

Many of the religious right postings on social media seem to lack historical knowledge, especially, with their outlandish claims that Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan were born again Christians. There is no historical evidence to support that claim either. Perhaps, they believe if they say it enough times over the internet history will rewrite itself.

Rick Santorum states Liberalism is a social disease, I would disagree with the former Republican Senator from Pennsylvania. Problems facing our country are not caused by Liberalism but rather it’s the polarization of ideologies within Government.

Christian Fundamentalists posting on Facebook sincerely believe our Nation was founded on conservative Christian orthodoxy. They should however take time to learn about our country’s heritage rather than trying to push their religious agenda. Liberalism is not a social disease nor is it the sole cause of the discord in Washington, DC. The main problem is our government’s inability to reach a compromise and put the needs of the American people foremost.

Liberal ideologies fill the pages of our history books; the delegates that signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 were, for example, considered radical liberals. Especially, by those who didn’t want to rock the boat and enter a war with England. Most religious leaders at that time argued that a war against England could not be won.

In Thomas Jefferson’s time during the forming of our great American experiment, the Roman Catholic Church declared democracy an immoral form of Government. The Pope at that time believed - America does not recognize Christ and the church as its moral and governing authority therefore its government is worldly and immoral. Thomas Jefferson was considered the greatest liberal of all with his radical idea of erecting a wall of separation between church and state. Conservatives at the time declared him an atheist even though he was a Deist.

Those who condemned slavery in the 1850s were also considered bleeding heart liberals. Unlike today many Democrats were staunch racists during the abolitionist movement of the 1800s but their party was divided. That division led to the first Republican to win the Presidency in 1860. Abraham Lincoln only got 40% of the popular votes in the election of 1860. His two opponents got 60% of the votes - 30% of the votes going to each of his opponents. His two opponents were pro-slavery and if the 1860 election were a two-way race Lincoln would have lost due to his liberal ideals and history would have turned out quite differently.

Unlike today the Republican Party from the mid to the late 1800s was the liberal progressive party. The Democratic Party back then was the religious conservative party who campaigned on bible quotes. They believed slavery was justified on religious grounds because the bible says so.

Steven Douglas who ran against Lincoln accused him of being a Deist because he never referred to god’s biblical word in his speeches. Lincoln’s response, “…. when I do good … I feel good …… when I do bad, I feel bad. Therefore, I do my best to do what is right, ….. to follow the rules of goodness at all times, this is the religion I live by.” Lincoln went on to say in response to Steven Douglas “…… I cannot conceive a superior intelligence, which we refer to as God that would concur with my opponent’s (Douglas) feeble, mediocre ramblings.” Lincoln took a huge gamble by alienating himself from the religious conservatives, but he spoke honestly, but many historians believe Douglas won the debate among the pro-slavery crowd.

Lincoln was hated and despised as President because he did not set out to please the citizenry by making the popular choices. He rather put preserving the Union above all else. He understood history was depending on the tough unpopular choice he had to make. He brought our country through the greatest and bloodiest conflict our Nation ever faced. Some historians put the death toll in the civil war at seven-hundred and twenty thousand. North against South, brother against brother, every household experienced a great loss due to the death of a loved one. The South experienced the most carnage and punishment by the northern forces and each side passionately believed God was on their side.

A reporter asked Lincoln, “Mr. President both sides say God is on their side how can you both be right?” Lincoln’s response, “God is always on the side of humanity, urging us, to concede to the will of our higher angel, dwelling, within all of us.”

In the end, Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 elevated our 16th President to secular sainthood. His death occurred on the Christian observance of Good Friday. In some way, his death symbolized and represented the loss and pain that the country endured throughout the war.

North and South mourned the death of Abraham Lincoln. History however does not always concur with the myths and legends that continue to surround our 16th President in popular culture. He represented all that was worst in humanity and all that was best in humanity. His goals for the southern reconstruction were not fulfilled as he hoped they would be. It was due to his assassination and the staunch racism and hatred of his successor, Andrew Johnson. Unlike, Lincoln, the 17th President, Andrew Johnson, was on the wrong side of history.

Afro-Americans were treated poorly in the south and the southern whites got away with horrendous crimes against the southern blacks. Southerners used the people of color as scapegoats for the Civil War and took out all their hate and animosity against them.

The Ku Klux Klan commonly called the KKK or simply the Klan was made up of both democrats and republicans. When the KKK emerged, segregation soon followed, becoming the norm under the new Jim Crow laws that were established in the southern states. It would take decades for the civil rights movement to take root leading to extraordinary social changes.

The mid-1950s and throughout the 1960s brought the civil rights struggle to the national mainstream. Enlightened voices and extraordinary oratory from people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders brought the struggles of Afro-Americans to light. Television visualized the injustices waged against people of color in the south and the dissonance of white supremacy.

President John F Kennedy tried to pass massive civil rights legislation through congress, but conservative republicans and democrats blocked the bills. It wasn’t until JFK’s assassination that President Lyndon Johnson was able to push Kennedy’s civil rights bills through congress and the Civil Rights Act was signed into law in 1964 bringing an end to segregation. The voting rights act in 1965 was passed making it illegal to interfere with a person’s right to vote. The fair housing rights act in 1968 came into law making it illegal to refuse to rent or sell property to a person based on that person’s race.

Southern Governors opposed the new civil rights laws like Governor George Wallace (January 1963 – January 1967) of Alabama, a proud racist. He had no qualms about announcing his racism on national television. He said, “there was segregation, yesterday, they’ll be segregation, today, and they’ll be segregation, tomorra’, as long as I’m Govana’ of the mighty State of Alabama’.” George Wallace ran for Governor on that very slogan and won his first term in November of 1962. He and other southern Governors ignored the new civil rights laws. They accused the Democratic leaders in Washington of being soft, and bleeding-heart liberals, for interfering with the southern way of life. At various times throughout LBJ’s Presidency National guard units had to be called into various southern states to help enforce the Civil rights laws.

President Johnson escalated the Vietnam War by sending thousands of ground troops to Vietnam in hopes of winning over the hardline southern conservatives. They accused the President of being soft on communism. Those who opposed the war were looked upon as bleeding heart liberals by the conservatives. Most historians today would agree that the Vietnam War was a huge blunder and that Vietnam never posed an imminent threat to the United States.

Decades earlier when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President many Republicans during the Great Depression of the 1930s accused FDR as being a socialist for his new deal policies. His welfare programs also caused many Republican conservatives to accuse Roosevelt not just of being a socialist but of being a bleeding-heart liberal as well.

Conservatives on Facebook always point to Ronald Reagan as the last of the great conservative Presidents. If they took the time to read his personal letters a different picture would emerge. Reagan was once asked by a reporter “is Jesus Christ your personal savior?” Reagan responded, “I don’t wear religion on my sleeve.” The religious right at the time accused Reagan of being Christian in name only because he never brought up Jesus in his speeches and rarely worshiped in a Church on Sunday. Reagan’s personal writings show him to be ahead of his time on many social issues and he was not as conservative as the religious right on Facebook makes him out to be. In 1983, Reagan signed into law, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (third Monday in January) a national holiday to commemorate the life of Dr. King.

If an Abraham Lincoln or a Ronald Reagan were to run for President today, they would not be able to get their names on the Republican ballot. The religious right would reject them for not being conservative enough.

In 1960 when John F Kennedy’s Catholicism became a campaign issue Kennedy responded, “The wall of separation between Church and State is absolute,” but many conservatives say Kennedy was wrong.

A religious conviction was never a prerequisite for political office in our Nation’s early years. This has become a modern phenomenon that diminishes the electoral process in the United States. John F Kennedy was correct in stating the wall of separation is absolute because that is what our founding fathers intended it to be.

Religious litmus tests for political fitness within our country goes against the very core principles that our country was founded on. I do, however, agree that the founding principles that made our country great are becoming somewhat lost. It cannot be denied, our founding fathers did not set out to create a Christian Theocracy they intended to create a just society. They also had a benevolent attitude toward religion in general, and Christianity in particular.

Our Nation’s founding fathers believed education based on reason, logic, and a virtuous upbringing is needed for a just society to bear fruit. We cannot have a just society without a virtuous electorate and that too is being lost in our country. Religiosity being cloaked into Government policy by the conservative fringe will only diminish our nation’s greatness even further. We also need to re-apply the immortal words of John F Kennedy - “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” I say this because today many are asking what our Government can do for “ME” and that includes many of today’s politicians. Common decency and service to our country seem to have been foremost in Kennedy’s generation.

Service to our country and common decency are also part of our country’s founding principles unfortunately they too are eroding in society. Politicians need to move away from an entitlement mentality, to a self-worth mentality, by asking themselves, “what can I do to make our country a better place to live.”

I like to tell my students, “fools talk because they can, the wise on the other hand, choose their words carefully.” Words matter and how we communicate with one another can be just as important as what we say to one another.

There are no easy solutions for the social issues permeating our society but we as citizens can take more personal responsibility for the negative issues surrounding us. We can empower ourselves and others by voting in this upcoming election. We can also accomplish the needed changes in our society through education, volunteerism, involving ourselves in outreach and community-based programs. Putting ourselves in the service of others not only helps our community but it also enhances our wellbeing.

Always with love, from Suzhou, China.

Thomas F O'Neill

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