Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
In his inaugural address, Donald Trump announced that “today we are
not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or
from one party to another — but we are transferring power from
Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American People. For
too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards
of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington
flourished — but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians
prospered — but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The
establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country….
That all changes — starting right here, and right now, because this
moment is your moment: it belongs to you.”
These were stirring words, but they were the sort of thing presidents
have said for ages. Back in his first inaugural address in 1913,
Woodrow Wilson decried the fact that “the great Government we loved has
too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes, and those
who used it had forgotten the people.” In his first inaugural address in
1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower asserted that “we, the people, elect leaders
not to rule but to serve.” And in his January 1996 state of the union
address, Bill Clinton declared: “We know big government does not have
all the answers. We know there’s not a program for every problem.
We
have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic
government in Washington. And we have to give the American people one
that lives within its means. The era of big government is over… Our goal
must be to enable all our people to make the most of their own lives —
with stronger families, more educational opportunity, economic security,
safer streets, a cleaner environment in a safer world.”
However, as Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster
explains, Trump’s declaration that he was transferring power back to
the people actually heralded a move away from big government, not toward
it. Trump’s words didn’t herald a push to expand government power under
the guise of working for the people. On the contrary, he was determined
to expand the freedom Americans enjoyed and roll back government power.
A new era had begun in American politics: for the first time in over a
century, the rule of “the people” did not mean the rule of the
government.
This equation has been taken for granted since the election of 1896,
when a key issue was currency. The Republican platform committed the
party to the gold standard, which prevented the production of so much
currency as to lead to inflation. A minority of Republicans and a
significant majority of Democrats, however, supported the free coinage
of silver, which would lead to inflation and thereby make it easier for
farmers to pay off their debts.
That rapidly rising prices were
rendering the life savings of Americans essentially worthless did not
trouble the silver advocates, who cloaked their case for what was
essentially the government’s assumption of the debts of private citizens
in the language of support for the plight of the common man. Forgotten
in all the controversy was that when the government does something, it
is the taxpayers who pay for it….There is much more.
