March 1, 2016 – There comes a
time when an individual, a group, a military outfit or even a nation
must make a stand for the cause, whatever that cause might be.
Senate Republicans are known for caving in. Principles are
not a part of their foundation. Compromising is their bread and butter.
They are not known for standing tall for their cause in the face of
adversity.
Yet in the 1860s, the
Republican Party made a moral stand. The party pressed reluctant
congressional members to abolish slavery in America. They ensured that
black s were afforded the right to become full citizens and were able to
own property. They also saw to it that blacks were afforded the right
to vote.
To a man, republicans stood their
ground against racist Democrats who fought every civil rights bill that
was ever brought before Congress. They also stood up to moderates
within their own political party. And they prevailed. Black America was
liberated.
Perhaps the GOP could learn from the Greeks.
The famous Battle of Thermopylae was a fierce battle
between the defending Greek city-states (led by Athenian general
Themistocles, King Leonidas I of Sparta and Demophilus of Thespiae) and
the attacking Persian army of Xerxes I of Persia (now Iran).
The total number of Greek forces numbered
from 5,200 to 11,200. The Persians fielded between 70,000 and 300,000.
Although outnumbered, the Greek coalition stood their ground against the
massive Persian army.
At the time of the threat, the Spartans, the most feared
warriors of Greece, were enjoying a festival called Carneia, during
which no armed battles were allowed. King Leonidas of Sparta, wanting to
keep his promise to the Greek coalition, could only take his personal
bodyguard of 300 men, who were not subject to the decisions of the
council, to ward off the advancing Persians.
Once they were ready for battle, the Greeks positioned
themselves in front of the Phocians’ defensive wall and formed the Greek
phalanx, an impenetrable wall of men that rotated continuously so those
out of the battle would be brought in and out, keeping the Greeks from
tiring.
King Xerxes watched in horror as the Greeks demolished his
army without losing many of their own men. Frustrated, he ordered in
his elite troops, known as the Immortals, to do battle with the Spartans
and their allies. The results were the same. They were slaughtered.
In the end, the Greeks were betrayed by a Greek named
Ephialtes, who went to Xerxes hoping for a reward by telling Xerxes
about a goat trail in the mountains that would take the Persians around
and behind the Greeks.
Knowing they had been betrayed, the Greeks held council.
The majority of the Greek forces were released to form a more defensive
position several miles behind the frontlines.
Left to fight the Persians were what remained of the 300
Spartans, 400 Thebans and 700 Thespians. Surrounded and outnumbered, the
Greeks stood their ground and fought to the death.
The Greeks did not cut and run or make deals. They stood for their cause.
If that history lesson was too old for the Senate
Republicans, they can study Gen. Custer and his infamous last stand.
They can look to World War II’s Battle of the Bulge, in which 80,000
American G.I.s were killed, captured or wounded, more than in any battle
in U.S. history, by 250,000 advancing Germans.
In each of these examples, men were willing to risk everything, even their lives, for the cause they believed in.
The question now is whether Senate Republicans are willing to make the same stand for their cause.
The sudden passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia, an unwavering stalwart of conservative principles, has unleashed
a desperate battle. The battle is between conservatives and liberals
over the very future of the Supreme Court and the country.
The current president has signaled his intent to name a
replacement for Justice Scalia before he leaves office. He is likely to
select a left-leaning ideologue who will continue his progressive
policies for generations after he leaves office.
If he is successful, should the Senate Republicans cave in, America as we know it would cease to exist.
Two barriers could stop this outcome: The Senate
Republicans and the American public. No one is asking Senate Republicans
to sacrifice their lives. Conservatives just want them to stand up to
this president and stand up for their country.
If ever there was a time in our history for its leaders to stand their ground, it is now.
We have a president who is conducting state affairs as if
he has been declared dictator for life. He is allowing illegal aliens to
enter this country and implementing lax refugee policies that open the
possibility of jihadists posing as refugees to enter our borders.
This is a president who has no problem enforcing the laws he likes. Those he dislikes, he ignores.
He has purposely sowed the seeds of discontent between
blacks and whites. He has caused friction between Hispanics and other
groups, thanks to his stand on immigration. Instead of creating bridges
between the black community and law enforcement, he has stoked the
flames of distrust and hatred between the two groups.
As for Republicans and Democrats, the two parties are as polarized as they have ever been.
On foreign policy, he has embraced and supported our enemies while ignoring our traditional allies.
He has also degraded the United States Armed Forces, previously the most capable and most lethal fighting force in history.
And there’s more on the domestic front.
Since taking office in 2009, food stamp rolls under
President Barack Obama have risen to more than 48 million people in
America, exceeding the population of Spain.
If you add the current number of Americans without a job
(9.75 million) to the number of U.S. citizens not in the labor force
(92.02 million), you come up with 101.77 million working-age Americans
who are unemployed, according to data from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
When it has suited his needs and agenda, President Obama
has used government agencies, such as Homeland Security, the EPA and the
IRS, as enforcers to intimidate us and make us conform.
And by naming liberal justices to the Supreme Court, he has used that institution to give legal standing to his policies.
This is why the Republican Senate must stay the course. They must grow a spine and stand up to this man.
This is a grand opportunity for the Republican leadership
to stand firm and stand tall. If they do, they will be immortalized much
like those brave Greeks and the 1860s Radical Republicans and the brave
men and women in today’s military.
As citizens, we challenge every senator to remain obedient
to their word and the oath he or she took to protect and preserve what
we cherish so deeply, the United States Constitution, our Bill of Rights
and our way of life.
2016 is truly the year Republicans, conservatives,
independents and the undecided must band together and beat back the
progressive/socialist takeover of our country. It is truly a now or
never proposition.
Let us not forget that those who died for this country did not die for the cause of socialism or communism.
Sure, the left will cry foul and call the Republicans
obstructionists and utter more profane expressions to inaccurately
characterize their principled stand. But in the eyes of the people who
truly matter, they will be regarded as great leaders and true patriots
to be admired for all time.
Perhaps the Senate Republicans can take a lesson from a group of young boys.
In 1899, the streets of New York City were filled with the
voices of the newsboys, or “newsies,” as they were known. These young
boys were mostly poor orphans and runaways, some as young as 7 years
old.
They slept on the cold streets of New York with no place
to go and no families to turn to. They supported themselves by selling
newspapers on the crowded corners of New York.
There were two major New York newspapers at the time, the New York World and the New York Journal. They were owned by the two most powerful men in New York, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.
These youngsters played a crucial role in getting the
papers into circulation. They had to be persuasive because they were not
afforded a refund on the papers they failed to sell. If they did not
sell enough papers, they didn’t eat.
It was tough on them, no doubt.
At some point, the two newspaper barons raised the price
they charged the boys for the papers they sold. Highly upset, the boys
banned together and went on a city-wide strike. They even tied up the
Brooklyn Bridge for three days.
Nearly 5,000 of them stood in solidarity until Hearst and Pulitzer capitulated and agreed to their demands.
Surely, if a group of pre-pubescent boys have big enough
kahunas to stand up to these two very wealthy and powerful newspaper
barons and win, the Republican Senate can stand up to a former community
agitator and shield the country from his Supreme Court nominees.
Honestly, how hard can that be?
No comments:
Post a Comment