Since Joe Biden took office as President I’ve been impressed by the speeches he’s given, quoting the Declaration of Independence, and Abe Lincoln amongst others in well-constructed pieces beautifully delivered.
Joe’s been a long time in politics and he’s nearly as old as myself. Abraham Lincolnwas a mere stripling of 56 when he was shot and didn’t have scriptwriters and consequently couldn’t plagiarise Neil Kinnock. And Lincoln, like most literate English-speaking Protestants was familiar with the King James Bible. Not an heirloom to many Americans with a Mayo Catholic heritage
Biden speaks of the United States “as the last great hope of mankind” paraphrasing Lincoln’ letter to Congress urging it have the Constitution amended to free all the slaves in the United States, (The Constitution did not give the President power to amend it alone. But, armed with the powers given him to preserve the Union, his primary aim .Lincoln had declared all slaves in the rebel states emancipated, before those states surrendered.) Congress approved in December 1864.The rebels surrendered on 12 April 1865, LIncoln was murdered on 14th April 1865 and the 13th Amendment was ratified in December of that year.
Lincoln’s letter to Congress (whose date I can’t find) starts –
“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We hold the power and bear responsibility in giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free, honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of Earth. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just – a way which if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”
It would be nice to imagine that the United States followed that way at home or abroad at any time in the 156 years since Lincoln’s murder. And it would be the height of blasphemy to imagine a just God blessing that record. The United States is powerful and rich and can buy venal politicians and venal Churchmen in many countries, It has devastated countries (such as Vietnam) which never harboured a grudge against Uncle Sam. engineer coups by military thugs, murder and kidnap people and send them to Guantanamo, gag journalists or have its gutless satellites hold them in solitary confinement in London (the home of Magna Carta) and get Israel join her in victimising Cuba, probably the most altruistic state on the planet.
No nation is so helpless, no human life is so helpless that Jo Biden’s new broom would save it from destruction. Under Biden the Constitution is being amended so that a Supreme Court ruling under which 62 million infants were done to death since 1973 (Roe vs Wade) will be enshrined in the Constitution and citizens will be obliged to fund their destruction.
Hillary Clinton was reported this week to have said recently “WE NEED TO PROTECT ABORTION FOR OUR GRANDKIDS.”
I suppose she thinks the Gettysburg Address was Abortion Centre?
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