The Last Great Republican
March 13, 2007
This blog is nothing more than a collection of quotes from the man; I feel was the Last Great Republican.
His name?
Dwight David Eisenhower.
To my fathers generation, he was “Ike”.
He was born in 1890 and died in 1969. He led the “Greatest Generation” as Supreme Commander, Allied Forces in Europe during World War II. He was a man of morals and integrity. He knew firsthand about the horrors of war. He knew about the suffering of the innocent victims (the women, children, and old people) from misguided leaders and policy.
I like Ike, as the 34th President, he understood the possible nightmare that would result from the United States being a world power, and gave us warnings. His profound insight is startling. I will let you, dear reader, draw your own conclusions. Let’s hear from him once more:
> “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.” - Letter to Edgar Newton Eisenhower, 11-08-1954
> “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity”. - Speech in Ottawa (01-10-1946)
> “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both”. - Inaugural address (01-20-1953)
> “All of us have heard this term ‘preventative war’ since the earliest days of Hitler. I recall that is about the first time I heard it. In this day and time… I don’t believe there is such a thing; and, frankly, I wouldn’t even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing”. - Press conference (1953)
> “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience…we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist”. - Farewell speech as President (01-17-1961)
> “God help any man who sits behind this desk who doesn’t know the military like I do”. - Referring to how the military can control politicians
> “May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion”.
> “The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without”.
> “When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.”
> “Dollars and guns are no substitutes for brains and will power”
I believe when the history of the last four decades of the 20th Century and early years of the 21st Century is written about the United States of America, historians will say we did not heed Ike’s warning.
At the end of the day, the GOP, the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower, will be remembered as the Grand Old Pharisee’s, the party of the hypocritically self-righteous. The only problem is they will, like the Biblical Pharisee’s, never admit they are wrong, and our society will suffer, just as theirs did.
