Republicans and the Founding Fathers speak from beyond. Tea Party watch out

[rpannier]

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
~Abraham Lincoln

“To impose taxes when the public exigencies require them is an obligation of the most sacred character, especially with a free people.”
~James Monroe

“The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for … the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use.”
~Theodore Roosevelt

“It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.”
~Theodore Roosevelt

“Today’s so-called ‘conservatives’ don’t even know what the word means. They think I’ve turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That’s a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right. It’s not a conservative issue at all.”
~Barry Goldwater

“The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education 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.”
~Thomas Jefferson

“I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education.”
~Thomas Jefferson

“While I am a great believer in the free enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment.”
~Barry Goldwater

“As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.”
~George Washington

“Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.”
~Ronald Reagan

“Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice.”
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“We establish no religion in this country. We command no worship. We mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are and must remain separate.”
~Ronald Reagan

“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 that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
~Dwight Eisenhower

“We all agree that neither the Government nor political parties ought to interfere with religious sects. It is equally true that religious sects ought not to interfere with the Government or with political parties. We believe that the cause of good government and the cause of religion suffer by all such interference.”
~Rutherford B. Hayes

“The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community.”
~James A. Garfield

“We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.”
~Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”
~Barry Goldwater

"Declare church and state forever separate and distinct; but each free within their proper spheres."
-Ulysses S. Grant

"When religion is good, it will take care of itself. When it is not able to take care of itself, and God does not see fit to take care of it, so that it has to appeal to the civil power for support, it is evidence to my mind that its cause is a bad one."
-Benjamin Franklin

[No Elephants]

1. Amen to all that!

er, I mean....

[No Elephants]

2. If only these very powerful people had lived the things

they said to win over plebes like us, eh?

The lived and governed differently from what they "preached," but they get to have these quotes as their legacy, anyway.


Isn't this where an atheist might say, "From things like this, it's obvious that there is no God?"


I find the quotes from Eisenhower especially ironic. West Point, lifelong military, except for a couple of President gigs (Columbia U. and the US), escalator of our involvement in Vietnam and who knows what else).









(I wanted here the photo of Prescott Bush with Eisenhower, but, more and more, you cannot copy images or the image location. I could not even copy it from a prior post of mine at DU2!)














Eisenhower later included Prescott Bush on an undated handwritten list of prospective candidates he favored for the 1960 GOP presidential nomination. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush



And the rest, as they say, is history.







(Medal of Freedom Award Ceremony)

[Enthusiast]

3. Those were from before the Republicans lost their fucking minds.

Seriously.