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04/16/2005: "Abe was Right, and Here’s Why"

Abraham Lincoln is of course one of this site’s spotlight American heroes, not the least for his enduring insights on political morality. From day 1, SherWright.com has presented a page of our favorite Abe quotes. Here are a couple I find particularly compelling in light of the shenanigans of the present “Party of Lincoln” administration. Here’s the first: “I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.” Now does that sound like the Bush Administration? George W’s version would be “I’ll correct an error if I ever make one!” This brings us to the Lincoln quote (emphasis added) that fits current circumstances like a glove: “you can fool some of the people all of the time.” Abe was right, and SherWright.com is now filling in the details. Who has Bush fooled? Pretty much everyone who has voted for him over the last two elections, slightly more that the majority of the electorate in one case and slightly less in the other. How did he fool them? He had them believing in free lunch, in campaign promises for new government benefits and no fewer benefits achieved at the same time that taxes are dramatically cut. Note at the size of the group that bought into a fantasy that every fourth grader knows to be illogical. Still, half the electorate is a pretty large number of people! So how can you as Abe says fool so many people for so much of the time? Here’s how: you can do it when they want to be fooled. The sad truth is that millions upon millions of Americans are ready to be deluded that wealth and prosperity could be achieved in any but the old fashioned way: by earning it. They seem to need to believe that they can be citizens in the sole superpower with third world tax rates. All it took was a party leadership hungry for political power to harness this greed for political gain. Considering how badly Abe’s party has strayed from the moral example he set, could there be any times where his words (as opposed to his party) not stood the test of time? Here’s a candidate: “While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.” An argument can be made that he was off base, considering the impact of Bush Administration fiscal policy over that short period. However, given that so many people have demonstrated their willingness to be fooled, I now understand better than ever what Abe was getting at with his caveat “while the people retain their virtue…”