Lincoln's Words at Gettysburg
Americans cannot be reminded too often of Abraham Lincoln’s words hopefully concluding that ‘this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’ Here is an excerpt from a rare photograph of Lincoln in the crowd on the platform at the Gettysburg Cemetery dedication where he spoke those words. |
| Lincoln is looking downward toward the lower center |
Please visit Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters from an American’ posting of 11/19/24 commemorating the 161st anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. Just visit https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ or JUST CLICK HERE.
JL
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Trump’s Failure Predicted
In a recent column in the New York Times (11/17/24), David French foresees the beginning of Donald Trump’s failure in his second presidency. Check it out by copying and pasting this link on your browser line
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/opinion/trump-kennedy-gaetz-hegseth.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20241118&instance_id=139918&nl=the-morning®i_id=78918068&segment_id=183456&user_id=02fa158150d34dc186b01b1b8ec7a224
or by simply CLICKING HERE.
It’s hard to disagree with French’s reasoning, whereby the votes of an easily influenced majority elect a government run by a deeply engaged minority that completely takes over when that majority deserts politics and goes back to their hum-drum regular existence.
As French puts it, ‘Because the majority votes and then checks back out, politicians hear almost exclusively from the most engaged minority.’
The next time around, just maybe, a dissatisfied voting public might vote to remove that engaged minority from control of government. Just maybe. We shall see.
This should not cause those still believing in democracy to sit back and just wait for it to happen. It won’t happen automatically. The thought processes and motivations French describes are obscured by the lack of knowledge of too many voters. They just don’t think that deeply, their prime interests being things that directly impact upon their lives, like jobs, prices, crime, and peace, all among the ‘hot buttons’ pressed by Republicans in 2024, and not what that deeply engaged minority which they empowered, really has on its agenda.
If the ignorant, the gullible, and the stupid were excluded from voting, we probably would end up with more effective and efficient government, but by so limiting the electorate, we would be giving up on democracy’s meaning, rule by the people, and that is not a good idea. In fact, it’s a very bad idea.
(See the following piece concerning Thomas Jefferson’s thoughts on ignorance.)
JL
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A Crusade Against Ignorance
Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letters From an American’ posting dated November 16, in dealing with Republican attacks on the Department of Education, included the following item illustrating Thomas Jefferson’s take on the matter.
Richardson points out that our third president, Thomas Jefferson, recognized that education is fundamental to democracy, because only educated people can accurately evaluate the governmental policies that will truly benefit them.
Jefferson had written a letter to a colleague about public education from which Richardson quoted: “No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom, and happiness…. Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against [the evils of “kings, nobles and priests”], and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.”
While we no longer have kings nor nobles to fear, (some scary,
politically-motivated clergy still remain), we do have ‘oligarchs’ whom I suspect Jefferson would similarly abhor.
The salvation of democracy rests in the likelihood of our engaging in the ‘crusade against ignorance’ of which Jefferson wrote.
JL
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Hope For a Trumpian Two-State Solution for Israel and the Palestinians
Tom Friedman writes in the New York Times that despite president-elect Trump’s appointment of strong one-state proponent Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel, Trump’s history also includes strong support for a two-state solution.
The president-elect is a mercurial person, whose views are not anchored in cement. Sometimes he doesn't remember what he said yesterday. His two-state ideas were very far from perfect, but they started down a road that is better than any one-state solution, a prescription for continuing violence, would be.
Read Friedman’s New York Times column by pasting
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/opinion/donald-trump-israel-gaza.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20241120&instance_id=140092&nl=today%27s-headlines®i_id=78918068&segment_id=183631&user_id=02fa158150d34dc186b01b1b8ec7a224
on your browser line, or just CLICK HERE.
JL
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The Lesson of 1984 (not the Orwell book) for Democrats
Back in 1984, Ronald Reagan in his landslide victory (far greater than anything Donald Trump has ever accomplished) pushed the Democratic Party to the brink of extinction.
They managed to survive, however, and eight years later, they elected Bill Clinton to the presidency. This is what today’s Democratic Party has to figure out how to do now.
Reagan defeated Walter Mondale in 1984, whose chief rival in the Democratic primaries had been Senator Gary Hart. Hart, who had his flaws, had pointed out that Mondale’s loyalty to interest groups inside the Democratic party was an Achilles’ heel and summed up the problem as follows: ‘You have to reach those voters who don’t feel represented by the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, the National Organization for Women], or the Sierra Club.’
But Mondale could not see beyond the demands of the noisiest factions in his coalition, leading to his destruction by Reagan at the polls (All he carried were his home State of Minnesota and D.C.).
There is a lesson there for today’s Democratic Party. They must find a common denominator which applies to the majority of American voters and target their efforts toward it in seeking their votes.
It may be contained in Senator Bernie Sanders’ views on appealing to the usually not fully appreciated nor properly rewarded American worker, or it may be something else, hopefully not something so sinister as were some of the notes played by Republicans in 2024.
Anyway, please go back to Jackspotpourri dated November 9, 2024 to check out Senator Sanders’ ideas.
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them.
There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though!
Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog.
Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.
Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.
Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it.
JL
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