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'That This Nation Shall Not Perish': What Bush learned from Lincoln.
The Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal ^ | February 17, 2004 | Brendan Miniter

Posted on 02/16/2004 9:16:15 PM PST by quidnunc

The third Monday in February is the day set aside to honor our great presidents. And accordingly thousands of tourists made their way to this city over the weekend. Visiting the Lincoln Memorial, I saw many of them climb the steps and study the massive statue of the 16th president before reading the "Gettysburg Address" inscribed on the south wall. Many also stopped to gaze out from the spot from which Martin Luther King Jr. stood to deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech.

This wasn't simply a momentary pause for history, an empty exercise of genuflecting. Sept. 11 awoke a new sense of patriotism in America and President's Day is a chance to reconnect with the ideas and the past struggles of this nation. And at the beginning of this election year it is also a chance to get above the minutia and mudslinging of a presidential campaign and reflect on the qualities that helped past leaders triumph in office. It's fitting then that in addition to the books on Lincoln and other presidents inside the memorial's store, visitors can buy a book on Sept. 11 "A Day of Tragedy."

Terrorism is, of course, the big issue now facing America. That's not to say George W. Bush is of the stature of a Lincoln or even that the war on terror is as serious of an issue as the dissolution of the union. Today's war isn't even as divisive as the Vietnam War had become by the late 1960s. Fighting terrorism, however, is increasingly dividing this country — and not always along party lines. There are two distinctive camps developing. One comprised of Americans who don't think the war is something that should touch their everyday lives. And another that sees combating terrorism as a fundamental struggle not just between good and evil but also over the soul of this nation — a struggle over who we are, as a people, and what we will tolerate on the world stage.

This is where presidential leadership is crucial. America is now at a crossroads. In one direction is complacency, a return of the mindset the nation was in before 9/11. It is here that staying within the consensus of "world opinion" is valued above acting on moral principles. It is here that, we are told, the ethos of the "everything goes" culture must not change. Schools and other civic institutions need more money, but shouldn't come in for fundamental reform.

In the other direction lies a wholly different mindset. Here Sept. 11 is still seen as a turning point not only for foreign policy, but culturally as well. That day marked the coming of an era where America is again confident enough in her ideas of individual liberty to not only encourage their spread abroad (sometimes through forcibly removing dictators) but also to teach them in her schools at home.

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: abrahamlincoln; bush43; issues; leadership; mlk; september12era

1 posted on 02/16/2004 9:16:17 PM PST by quidnunc
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To: quidnunc
And this is what Kerry Learned from NAM:

Monsieur Jean Kerry

I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations. - The Crimson 02/18/1970
A bold progressive internationalism," Kerry. - JK Website

2 posted on 02/16/2004 9:29:02 PM PST by KQQL (@)
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To: quidnunc
The third Monday in February is the day set aside to honor our great presidents.

Not anymore. Presidents Day "celebrates" all the presidents. One woman I talked to today was surprised at how busy things were today. I said that I wasn't going to commemerate Bill Clinton today.

3 posted on 02/16/2004 9:30:26 PM PST by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: KQQL
I do believe the Dems are back to before 9/11. Is this Clinton Redux for the White House????


4 posted on 02/16/2004 9:46:21 PM PST by Utah Girl
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