…and we are the worse for it:
It is somewhat difficult to find men in important Government positions who did not in their beginnings live by the work of their hands. Of those who sit at the Cabinet table of the Nation none were born to the purple, save only as they were born to become American citizens, and nearly all in early life earned their living by actual manual labor… Those who have been identified with toil are now, and will continue to be, in important places of government authority. The wage earners of America have been mixing their work with brains ever since the day of George Washington.
–Excerpts from a speech on Labor Day by Governor Calvin Coolidge, Sept 1, 1919.
I saw today I liberal online make the remark “our government of the people is our country” when this person was decrying the Rs and their latest .gvt shutdown.
Insert your Grumpycat pic here. “No!”
I saw that and first had to get past the idea that the words indicated “US government = US citizenry = US country”. No, the government is only a small part of our country. Put the military in those numbers, and the citizenry would still outnumber the government.
Secondly, I think we’re well past the government being “of the people”. Yes, I love the idea, and no I’m not trying to say our government is made up of non-US citizens. However, with over half of Congress comprised of millionaires, I doubt that Congress is truly representative of the people of the United States. There’s also a number of positions of power and influence within the government whom are political appointees, have never been elected, and those positions are those which probably should be elected. How many of these czars did we vote for? Did liberals vote for Henry Kissinger that they hate so much? And as your post indicates, how many in our government have worked with their hands for a living? THere’s too many whose entire career has been in politics; the current resident of the White House is one of them.
Thirdly, this lib was obviously trying to say “Republicans are against our American ideals of government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Ah, how soon they forget. This individual saying “our government is our country” is quite ironic, since on the same board you’ll see posts that the government is being run on behalf and for the benefit of “the 1%”.
Our generation needs a Cincinnatus, otherwise we’ll need another set of Founding Fathers.
Problem is, the “low info voters” will buy into this crap.
Merle