[LS]

Lincoln's greatness in this speech---as so many others have noted---is that he tied the Declaration and the Constitution together by saying that the nation was "dedicated to a proposition."

In "A Patriot's History of the United States," Mike Allen and I give extensive coverage to Lincoln, a section that I'm quite proud of.

[Talisker]

Lincoln's greatness in this speech---as so many others have noted---is that he tied the Declaration and the Constitution together by saying that the nation was "dedicated to a proposition."

Some thoughts...

I believe the proposition is not whether human beings have been given Rights from God, and whether as a result, government should serve the people rather than the people serving the government. Those, I would call the fundamental, and immediately derivative, premises.

The proposition is whether, left to their own devices, aided by the least totalitarian-structured government design, people will accept the responsibilities that come with those Rights, or reject them for fantasies of non- responsible ease and golden shackles.

The delusion of the Left is that America is like any other country. It's not. Human freedom (and the responsibilities that come with it) are a command from God. If they are rejected, if people morally collapse and embrace cowardice and hypocrisy and cruelty in exchange for favoured-slave status, I believe God will intervene.

In fact, I believe that, if necessary, freedom and responsibility will be imposed upon the human race by God with as much tyrannical violence as is necessary to teach people it is not optional.

That sounds like an oxymoron until you look at what is happening in the world, and in America, and what people are choosing to do with their lives more and more these days.

God is not mocked.