Monday, February 19th
Presidents
Speak for Themselves
A
Reflection
Presidents are human beings.
They have all been men (so far), flawed men, everyone
who has ever held or sought the office.
Some have had heroic attributes. All of them have had
craven moments. There have only been forty-four of them, until now, the 45th.
A couple of other presidents have barely made it into office, only a handful
have won the office while failing to earn the popular vote. The forty-third was
appointed by the Supreme Court, the first time.
Nevertheless, they were all legitimate…until now.
This president, the occupant of the oval office, the
forty-fifth, I was prepared to accept him as the latest president, even though
he lost the popular vote, even though there is a cloud of intrigue surrounding
his victory; foreign interference (Russia), domestic malfeasance (the FBI), I
was prepared to accept him, just as I had accepted Regan, and Bush who were
also elected to the highest office, without my support or my enthusiasm or my
vote. I accepted them because I believed that they would uphold the rule of law
(even though they did illegal things, or illegal things were done in their name).
In the end I believed they would support the American
system, the separation of powers, the separation of Church and State, the
freedom of the press, an independent judiciary.
The forty-fifth president will not.
He is seeking to undermine the courts, at every turn. He
actively undermines our institutions, and works to undermine the rule of law.
He has called the free press an enemy of the people.
This kind of rhetoric makes him a threat to the
Republic. The power of his office makes him a threat to humankind
He should listen to the words of these presidents, and
we should listen to him, take seriously the things he says and does in our
name.
The words of the presidents:
1st
George Washington (Two Terms)
“If men are to be precluded from offering their
sentiments on a matter…reason is of no use to us; the freedom of speech may be
taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.”
A Real President - April 30, 1789 - March 4th, 1797
2nd
John Adams
“The liberty of the press is essential to the security
of the state.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1797 - March 4th, 1801
3rd
Thomas Jefferson (Two Terms)
"The only security of all is in a free press. The
force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be
expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to
keep the waters pure."
A Real President - March 4th, 1801 - March 4th, 1809
4th
James Madison (Two Terms)
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or
of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances.”
A Real President - March 4, 1809 - March 4th, 1817
5th
James Monroe (Two Terms and Last of the Founders)
“Free people seldom intrigue together; because there
is no motive for it. Between the leaders however of a free people, and the
neighboring monarchs, such intrigues have often taken place, and always will
take place, whilst liberty is odious to monarchs, and men can be found base
enough to betray her.”
A Real President - March 4, 1817 - March 4th, 1825
6th
John Quincy Adams (Lost the Popular Vote)
“The freedom of the press should be inviolate.”
President - March 4, 1825 - March 4th, 1829
7th
Andrew Jackson (Two Terms)
“As long as our government is administered for the
good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us
the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience, and of the press,
it will be worth defending.”
March 4th, 1829 - March 4th, 1837
8th
Martin Van Buren
“There is a power in public opinion in this country -
and I thank God for it: for it is the most honest and best of all powers -
which will not tolerate an incompetent or unworthy man to hold in his weak or
wicked hands the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens.”:
A Real President - March 4th, 1837 - March 4th, 1841
9th
William Henry Harrison
“There is no part of the means placed in the hands of
the Executive which might be used with greater effect for unhallowed purposes
than the control of the public press. The maxim which our ancestors derived
from the mother country that "the freedom of the press is the great
bulwark of civil and religious liberty" is one of the most precious
legacies which they have left us. We have learned, too, from our own as well as
the experience of other countries, that golden shackles, by whomsoever or by
whatever pretense imposed, are as fatal to it as the iron bonds of despotism.
The presses in the necessary employment of the Government should never be used
"to clear the guilty or to varnish crime." A decent and manly
examination of the acts of the Government should be not only tolerated, but
encouraged.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1841 - April 4th, 1841
10th
John Tyler
“The guaranty of religious freedom, of the freedom of
the press, of the liberty of speech, of the trial by jury, of the habeas
corpus…will be enjoyed by millions yet unborn…”
A Real President - April 4th, 1841 - March 4th, 1845
11th
James K. Polk
”Thank God, under our Constitution there was no
connection between Church and State, and that in my action as President of the
United States I recognized no distinction of creeds in my appointments office.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1845 - March 4th, 1849
12th
Zachary Taylor
“As American freemen, we cannot but sympathize in all
efforts to extend the blessings of civil and political liberty, but at the same
time, we are warned by the admonitions of history and the voice of our own
beloved Washington to abstain from entangling alliances with foreign nations.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1849 - July 9th, 1849
13th
Millard Fillmore
“The law is the only sure protection of the weak, and
the only efficient restraint upon the strong.”
“Church and state should be separate, not only in
form, but fact - religion and politics should not be mingled.”
A Real President - July 9th, 1850 - March 4th, 1853
14th
Franklin Pierce
“While men inhabiting different parts of this vast
continent cannot be expected to hold the same opinions, they can unite in a
common objective and sustain common principles.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1853 - March 4th, 1857
15th
James Buchanan
“The country is indebted for the clause prohibiting
Congress from passing any law respecting an establishment of religion or
abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the right of petition. To
this we are also indebted for the bill of rights which secures the people
against any abuse of power by the Federal Government.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1857 - March 4th, 1861
16th
Abraham Lincoln (Assassinated, Ended Slavery)
“Whenever this effect shall be produced among us;
whenever the vicious portion of [our] population shall be permitted to gather
in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision
stores, throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn
obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend upon it, this
government cannot last. By such things the feelings of the best citizens will
become more or less alienated from it, and thus it will be left without
friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to make their friendship
effectual. At such a time, and under such circumstances, men of sufficient
talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the opportunity, strike the blow,
and overturn that fair fabric which for the last half century has been the
fondest hope of the lovers of freedom throughout the world.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1861 - April 15th, 1865
17th
Andrew Johnson (Impeached)
“Notwithstanding a mendacious press; notwithstanding a
subsidized gang of hirelings who have not ceased to traduce me, I have
discharged all my official duties and fulfilled my pledges.”
Impeached President - April 15th, 1865 - March 4th,
1869
18th
Ulysses S. Grant (Two Terms)
“Let us labor to add all needful guarantees for the
more perfect security of free thought, free speech, and free press, pure
morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to
all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1869 - March 4th, 1877
19th
Rutherford B. Hayes (Lost the Popular Vote)
“I am not liked as a President by the politicians in
office, in the press, or in Congress. But I am content to abide the judgment
the sober second thought of the people.”
"But at the basis of all prosperity, for that as
well as for every other part of the country, lies the improvement of the
intellectual and moral condition of the people. Universal suffrage should rest
upon universal education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should
be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need
be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority."
President - March 4th, 1877 - March 4th, 1881
20th
James A. Garfield (Assassinated)
“In the long, fierce struggle for freedom of opinion,
the press, like the Church, counted its martyrs by thousands.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1881 - September, 1881
21st
Chester A. Arthur
“If it were not for the reporters, I would tell you
the truth.”
A Real President - September 19th, 1881 - March 4th,
1885
22nd
and 24th Grover Cleveland (Elected Twice, Serving Two
Non-consecutive Terms)
“Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their
masters. Not only is their time and labor due to the government, but they
should scrupulously avoid in their political action, as well as in the
discharge of their official duty, offending by a display of obtrusive
partisanship their neighbors who have relations with them as public officials.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1885 - March 4th, 1889, March
4th, 1893 - March 4th, 1897
23rd
Benjamin Harrison (Lost the Popular Vote)
“God forbid that the day should ever come when, in the
American mind, the thought of man as a 'consumer' shall submerge the old
American thought of man as a creature of God, endowed with 'unalienable
rights'.”
President - March 4th, 1889 - March 4th, 1893
25th
William McKinley (Assassinated)
“Equality of rights must prevail, and our laws be
always and everywhere respected and obeyed. We may have failed in the discharge
of our full duty as citizens of the great Republic, but it is consoling and
encouraging to realize that free speech, a free press, free thought, free
schools, the free and unmolested right of religious liberty and worship, and
free and fair elections are dearer and more universally enjoyed to-day than
ever before. These guaranties must be sacredly preserved and wisely
strengthened. The constituted authorities must be cheerfully and vigorously
upheld.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1897 - September 14th,
1901
26th
Theodore Roosevelt (Two Terms)
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the
President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not
only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American
public.”
A Real President - September 19th, 1901 - March 4th,
1909
27th
William Howard Taft
“The intoxication of power rapidly sobers off in the
knowledge of its restrictions and under the prompt reminder of an ever-present
and not always considerate press, as well as the kindly suggestions that not
infrequently come from Congress.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1909 - March 4th, 1913
28th
Woodrow Wilson (Oversaw the end of Women’s Sufferage)
“Publicity is one of the purifying elements of
politics. Nothing checks all the bad practices of politics like public
exposure.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1913 - March 4th 1921
29th
Warren G. Harding
"We must not abridge the freedom of speech, the
freedom of press, or the freedom of assembly because there is no promise in
repression."
A Real President - March 4th, 1921 - August 2nd, 1923
30th
Calvin Coolidge
“The freedom of the human mind is recognized in the
right to free speech and free press. The public schools have made education
possible for all and ignorance a disgrace.”
A Real President - August 2nd, 1923 - March 4th, 1929
31st
Herbert Hoover
“Absolute freedom of the press to discuss public
questions is a foundation stone of American liberty.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1929 - March 4th, 1933
32nd
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Four Terms)
“Freedom of conscience, of education, or speech, of
assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be
nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.”
A Real President - March 4th, 1933 - April 12th, 1945
33rd
Harry S. Truman (Two Terms)
“Once a government is committed to the principle of
silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down
the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of
terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in
fear."
A Real President - April 12th, 1945 - January 20th,
1953
34th
Dwight D. Eisenhower (Two Terms – Hero of the Second World War)
"Censorship, in my opinion, is a stupid and
shallow way of approaching the solution to any problem. Though sometimes
necessary, as witness a professional and technical secret that may have a
bearing upon the welfare and very safety of this country, we should be very
careful in the way we apply it, because in censorship always lurks the very
great danger of working to the disadvantage of the American nation."
A Real President - January 20th, 1953 - January 20th,
1961
35th
John F. Kennedy (Assassinated)
“Without debate, without criticism, no Administration
and no country can succeed-and no republic can survive. That is why the
Athenian law-maker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from
controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First
Amendment--the only business in America specifically protected by the
Constitution--not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the
trivial and the sentimental, not to simply "give the public what it wants"--but
to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities,
to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes
even anger public opinion.”
A Real President - January 20th, 1961 - November 22nd,
1963
36th
Lyndon B. Johnson (Two Terms, Passed the Civil Rights Act)
“Democracy is a constant tension between truth and
half-truth and, in the arsenal of truth, there is no greater weapon than fact.”
A Real President - November 22nd, 1963 - January 20th
1969
37th
Richard Nixon (Two Terms, Resigned)
“You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because,
gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” ~ Last press conference before
resignation…
Resigned the Presidency amid Charges of Corruption and
Obstruction of Justice
January 20th, 1969 - August 9th, 1974
38th
Gerald Ford (Un-elected)
“I believe in the first amendment and the absolute
necessity of a free press.”
President - August 9th, 1974 - January 20th 1977
39th
Jimmy Carter
“When people are intimidated about having their own
opinions, oppression is at hand.”
“We live in a time of transition, an uneasy era which
is likely to endure for the rest of this century. During the period we may be
tempted to abandon some of the time-honored principles and commitments which
have been proven during the difficult times of past generations. We must never
yield to this temptation. Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities
- not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.”
A Real President - January 20th, 1977 - January 20th,
1981
40th
Ronald Reagan (Two Terms)
“The First Amendment was not written to protect people
and their laws from religious values. It was written to protect those values
from government tyranny.”
A Real President - January 20th, 1981 - January 20th,
1989
41st
George H. W. Bush
We know what works: Freedom works. We know what's
right: Freedom is right. We know how to secure a more just and prosperous life
for man on Earth: through free markets, free speech, free elections, and the
exercise of free will unhampered by the state.”
A Real President - January 20th, 1989 - January 20th,
1993
42nd
Bill Clinton (Two Terms, Impeached but not Removed)
“The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins
with the destruction of the truth.”
A Real President - January 20th, 1993 - January 20th,
2001
43rd
George W. Bush (Two Terms, Lost the
Popular Vote in the First)
"I consider the media to be indispensable to
democracy…that we need the media to hold people like me to account. I mean,
power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it's important for the
media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or
elsewhere.”
A Real President - January 20th, 2001 - January, 20th
2009
44th
Barack Obama (Two Terms)
“We have to uphold a free press and freedom of speech
-- because, in the end, lies and misinformation are no match for the truth.”
A Real President - January 20th, 2009 - January 20th,
2017
45th
Donald Trump (Lost the Popular Vote, Elected with the Aid of a Foreign
Adversary)
“The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews,
AABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
A Fake President, Failing - January 20th, 2017 – One
year and one month in, and it cannot be over soon enough.
These words speak for themselves. One of these quotes
is not like the others.
The despot uttered it should be removed from office,
not because he made this statement, but for this sentiment and his many other
crimes.
Impeach!
Remember
This:
“Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress
of grievances.”
-
U.S. Constitution, First Amendment
