Intro to ‘On the Fourth of July, Honoring American
Exceptionalism and an Exceptional American, Charles Krauthammer’
Intro by John R. Houk, Editor
July 4, 2018
Declaration of Independence excerpt via The Patriot Post:
The unanimous Declaration of the
thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety
and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils
are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they
are accustomed. … READ
THE REST
This is the document that began the greatest political
experiment in human history. The American Left is brainwashing our children by
merely failing to make sure America’s founding documents and founding history
are ignored, criticized or disparaged.
A duo of authors – Lee Edwards and Elizabeth
Edwards Spalding – simultaneously extols our founding principles
ignored by the Left and memory of Charles Krauthammer who understood the
Liberty America experienced after fighting for OUR Independence from foreign
suzerainty.
JRH 7/4/18
********************
On the Fourth of July, Honoring American Exceptionalism
and an Exceptional American, Charles Krauthammer
July 04, 2018
In 2012, Charles
Krauthammer appeared at an event hosted by The Heritage Foundation. (Photo:
Shealah Craighead for The Heritage Foundation.)
Amid all the pomp and parades, the fireworks and other
illuminations, the hot dogs and the ice cream, the home runs and the World Cup
goals, let us be sure to pause on this Fourth of July holiday and say with
grateful hearts and proud voices, “Happy birthday, America!”
This land—our land—is 242 years young today.
Led by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Ben Franklin, our
Founding Fathers signed a document that raised high the banner of independence
and challenged England, at the time the most powerful nation in the world.
Remarked
one delegate as he signed the Declaration of Independence, “My hand trembles,
but my heart does not.”
The
liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The
good news is there is a solution. Find
out more
What was the central idea of this revolutionary declaration
that Jefferson, its author, called “an expression of the American mind”? Here
is what Charles Krauthammer, the TV commentator and syndicated columnist, said:
“America is the only country ever founded on an idea … and the idea is
liberty.”
Many of us in Washington, D.C., are still lamenting the June
21 death of Krauthammer, who had a commanding grasp of politics, including
foreign policy, that sprang from his intellect, his medical training and
practice, and his formation in the Jewish tradition.
Krauthammer was very much like a Founder. Whether they
agreed with him or not, those who knew him commented on his grace, civility,
and humor. He combined the character of George Washington, the prudential mind
of James Madison, and the wit of Franklin.
Asked how he could go from being a speechwriter for Walter
Mondale to a political commentator on Fox News, he replied, “I was young once.”
He was a happy warrior even though he dealt with more difficulties—he was
a quadriplegic from the age of 22—than most of us can imagine.
He could sum up a politician or a historical trend in just a
few words. One year into the Obama administration, he wrote, “Fairness through
leveling is the essence of Obamaism.” Toward the end of President Barack
Obama’s first term, he summed up the four years: “The greatest threat to a
robust, autonomous civil society is the ever-growing Leviathan state and those
like Obama who see it as the ultimate expression of the collective.”
Krauthammer excelled at explaining our times. He coined the
phrase “the Reagan Doctrine” to explain President Ronald Reagan’s support of
anti-communist forces in Afghanistan and Nicaragua, and extolled Winston
Churchill as the 20th century’s most indispensable leader. Paraphrasing
the Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, he said, “The free lunch is the essence of
modern liberalism.”
He was ever generous toward the rising generation. The
co-author of this commentary will be always grateful for his support at the
start of her academic career. Krauthammer would meet with her students who
learned much about politics from him, although nearly all disagreed with him—at
least at the beginning.
On one occasion, she took her students to see the satirical
troupe “Capitol Steps,” and Krauthammer was there with his family, laughing at
the anti-conservative sallies.
In the introduction to his book “Things That Matter,”
Krauthammer referred to Adams and Jefferson and their tempered hopes for the
durability of liberty.
He was not pessimistic, but realistic, about the future,
writing: “The lesson of our history is that the task of merely maintaining
strong and sturdy the structures of a constitutional order is unending, the
continuing and ceaseless work of every generation.”
He was a prime example of someone who knows that man does
not live by politics alone. His favorite diversion (after chess) was baseball,
specifically the up-and-down, in-and-out, always unpredictable Washington
Nationals, about whom he would wax poetic.
You get there [to the park], and
the twilight’s gleaming, the popcorn’s popping, the kids’re romping, and
everyone’s happy. The joy of losing consists in this: Where there are no
expectations, there is no disappointment.
But Krauthammer, liberal-turned-conservative,
psychiatrist-turned-political commentator, expected good things from the
people. He wrote of the tea party revolt, “No matter how far the ideological
pendulum swings in the short term, in the end, the bedrock common sense of the
American people will prevail.”
In his final column, he wrote: “I believe that the pursuit
of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble
undertaking. I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations
that have helped guide this extraordinary nation’s destiny.”
Of course, his was not a small, but rather a leading, role,
one that will serve as a model for those with the right ideas who take up the
responsibility of keeping this exceptional nation on the road to liberty.
So—along with “Happy Birthday, America!”—we say to Charles
Krauthammer, a mentor and an inspiration who will be missed beyond measure:
“May God bless you and keep you.”
_____________________
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