November 08, 2004
THE NICHOLSON BAKER OPTION (via Pat H):
Can History Save the Democrats? (DEAN E. MURPHY, 11/07/04, NY Times)
A LITTLE more than a month before he was assassinated, Abraham Lincoln stood at the east portico of the Capitol and delivered his second inaugural address. It was a brief speech with a distinctly religious message: he twice cited biblical verses, and made a dozen references to God, most strikingly in assessing the opposing sides in the Civil War."Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other," Lincoln said. "It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."
The address was roundly criticized in some newspapers for overstepping the bounds separating church and state. But Lincoln was using God to debunk government-by-God.
Now, with George W. Bush's re-election, God and a newly triumphant Republican president are once again in the headlines. And there are signs that the present national divide, between the narrow but solid Republican majority and a Democratic party seemingly trapped in second place, may be hardening into a pattern that will persist for years to come.
Democrats, especially, are left to wonder: What will it take to break the pattern - an act of God?
If you can't beat 'em, hope someone shoots him. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 8, 2004 03:41 PM
Hey, at least it's a strategy.
Posted by: h-man at November 8, 2004 03:47 PMWell, that's an astonishingly open call for the President's assasination from the NY Times.
But time spend on Lincoln's Second Inaugural is never wasted: Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none, with charity for 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 lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Posted by: David Cohen at November 8, 2004 03:53 PMInsanity. Someone on the left has got to step forward and put a stop to the madness somehow. I had thought that the NYT might be the ones to do so, thinking that their closeness with the Clintons might allow them to see that the ongoing Democratic self-immolation pretty much eliminates whatever slim hopes remain for Hillary in the White House. But obviously they've chosen to go over the cliff as well.
Posted by: brian at November 8, 2004 04:02 PMThe godless beseech the Almighty to move the hand of a murderer.
They don't get it at all, do they?
Posted by: M. Murcek at November 8, 2004 04:17 PMAs long as the Left is willing to wait (or too lazy to act) and hope for someone else to do their dirty work for them, we are probably safe.
But with this talk of secession and assassination,you'd think that the Left and the Dems would find something better to emulate than the '60s of the Nineteeth Century.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at November 8, 2004 04:22 PMInteresting that a mouthpiece of atheism (or at the very least, secularism) is longing for an act of God.
Posted by: George at November 8, 2004 06:49 PM"Who will rid us of this damned cowboy?!?"
Posted by: jim hamlen at November 8, 2004 09:59 PMMurphy is now backpedalling as fast as little feet will carry him, but with out much grace or conviction.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at November 8, 2004 11:32 PM