by Chuck Baldwin
November 10, 2009
A recent column co-authored by John Eidsmoe and Ben DuPré struck me. They titled their column, “What makes a ‘great’ president?”
See it at:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=114683
The basic thrust of the column was to examine the qualities that make one a “great” President. They start by examining the Presidency of our 11th President, James K. Polk. They note that Polk is commonly regarded as being one of America’s top 12 greatest Presidents. To use their words, “between eighth and 12th among our greatest presidents.”
Eidsmoe and Dupré note that Polk was undoubtedly a man of outstanding Christian character and faith. They say that Polk was “the only president who kept and fulfilled every one of his campaign promises.” They observe him to be a man “with a Puritan work ethic, [who] literally worked himself to death as president, retired from office in broken health and died 103 days later.”
But Polk also greatly expanded the power of the Presidency. “In 1846, President Polk sent American troops into disputed territory where they were almost certain to become embroiled in hostilities, and then demanded that Congress recognize that a state of war already existed. Increasingly with Polk’s presidency and thereafter, the president set national policy and the Congress rubber-stamped the president’s decisions.”
Eidsmoe and Dupré note that the people who are charged with rating our Presidents are commonly academicians, “and as such they tend to be left of center. They believe in centralized power, and they therefore admire presidents who increased federal power and concentrated it in the presidency.”
In this regard, Eidsmoe and Dupré are 100% correct. Look at the heroes of liberal historians and who do you find? Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt. Not by accident, these same historians will extol the virtues of Hammurabi, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon. All these men have one thing in common: they were responsible for expanding (either by force or fraud) a centralized government.
Eidsmoe and Dupré correctly challenge the standard by which greatness is determined and offer alternatives to the avant-garde, politically correct formula. They proffer that “the truly great men of history are those who have defended and preserved individual liberty by resisting the increase and centralization of government power.”
To that I say a hearty “AMEN.”
Eidsmoe and Dupré then offer their own list of great men, which includes Judas Maccabeus, Cato and Cicero, Hermann the Liberator, Archbishop Stephen Langton of Canterbury, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, and George Washington and Patrick Henry.
This brought to mind the fact that, several months ago, I had asked my friend, Howard Phillips, to rate his favorite US Presidents. This was his response:
1) George Washington: for the standard he established during his Presidency.
2) Thomas Jefferson: for his commitment to religious liberty and for recognizing the role of the states as he spelled out in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
3) Andrew Jackson: for his opposition to the second bank of the United States.
4) John Tyler: for his role in the admission of Texas to the Union.
5) James Polk: for advancing America’s “manifest destiny.”
6) Grover Cleveland: for his fidelity for the Constitution of the United States.
7) Calvin Coolidge: for his commitment to low taxes and limits on Federal spending as well as for his good character.
As for my personal list of greatest Presidents, it would largely mirror Howard’s list, with one deviation. I would suggest:
1) George Washington: America’s greatest President, without whom this republic would not exist. His “Farewell Address” is the greatest political speech ever delivered on American soil and should be regarded as “must-reading” for every American citizen.
2) Thomas Jefferson: America’s greatest defender of individual liberty and states’ rights.
3) James Monroe: for his leadership in establishing America’s strategically important “Monroe Doctrine.”
4) Andrew Jackson: for standing up against the bankers.
5) John Tyler: for defying his own party (Whigs) and twice vetoing the incorporation of the US Bank. And also for supporting the Southern cause for secession.
6) Grover Cleveland: for his honesty and devotion to the US Constitution.
7) Calvin Coolidge: for his dogged determination to limit taxes and federal spending.
As for my suggested list of personal heroes, those are already chronicled on my Wikipedia page. See it at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Baldwin
Interestingly enough, Dupré and Eidsmoe’s hero candidates, William Wallace and Patrick Henry, also grace my list of heroes as posted on my Wikipedia page.
One will notice that there are hardly any modern-day heroes mentioned on my list. I also observed that there were no modern-day heroes mentioned by John Eidsmoe and Ben Dupré in their column. Indeed. Where are the real heroes in national public office today?
Our national leaders (from both parties) seem to be shortsighted opportunists, possessing little regard for their oaths to the US Constitution, the principles of decency, or even plain, old-fashioned common sense. Both major parties in Washington, D.C., offer the American people varying degrees of socialism. Neither party demonstrates even tacit devotion to constitutional government. Federalism and limited government have all but disappeared under the oversight of both Republican and Democratic leaders. These disastrous Presidents (from Johnson, Nixon, and Carter to Clinton and Bush I & II) calmly leave office with no regret or remorse for the devastation, death, and deception that they inflicted upon the country. They live in the lap of luxury and comfort without the slightest tinge of conscience as to the massive destruction done to our Constitution, not to mention our economy, security, and way of life. Beyond that, our congressmen and senators are mostly miscreants in the similitude of Nancy Pelosi and Lindsey Graham.
It’s hard to imagine there was a time when giants once lived among us. It’s hard to recall a day when the word “hero” really meant something. Today, everyone is called a hero. Well, as one Marine Corps veteran recently said, “If everyone is a hero, no one is a hero.” Amen!
Perhaps more than anything, America needs great leaders once again. Men who are not enamored with power and wealth. Men who are more concerned with honoring their word and preserving the Constitution than they are being reelected and receiving a government pension. Men who really do respect the people that elected them. Men who are willing to be unpopular, if that is the cost of honesty and integrity. Men who know the difference between the eternal and the temporal. And, yes, men who know the meaning of the word AMERICAN.
Is the day of great leaders past? With few exceptions, it would appear so. And that–more than anything else–is why we are in the mess we are in today.
So, while you are saying your prayers tonight, don’t forget to ask God to give us some men like Washington and Jefferson. We could sure use them about now.
P.S. It’s not too late to cast your vote for me (or someone else) as Ron Paul’s running mate in 2012 at:
http://tinyurl.com/yfmndfr
P.P.S. THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS will be ready to ship in a few days. To get ahead of the Christmas rush, go here:
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/products.html
Well Chuck too little, too late,from to few.Including YOU
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If memory serves me. Polk’s son was a Confederate General. And where is President Jefferson Davis on that short list? Davis was indeed a man of virtue under extreme conditions. At a couple of points in his term. He could have invaded and destroyed Washington DC. But in the days of chivalry. It was unheard of to rape, pillage and murder civilians. That virtue was unknown by the infidel lincoln. And history has proven that since lincoln’s total war on Americans. The central system of tyranny has only expanded. Secede Now!
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Why should America be the only source of great leaders? There remain three great leaders in the world to-day, Putin, Chavez and Ahmedinejad.
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B. A Reply:
November 12th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Great ????? How are these dictators so great?
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Ang Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 3:44 am
What drives US foreign policy? Is it primarily the domestic economy, as it logically should be, or, as many argue, the powerful Israel lobby, or as other argue, the need to secure energy sources? Of course, the answer is all three, in varying degrees depending on the geopoltical importance of the country in question. And woe to any country that threatens any of the above.
Putin, Chavez and Ahmedinejad have all nationalized their oil resources and returned the revenues to their people. They have also used the revenues to pay off debts and have refused any loans from the IMF which would have endangered their resources should they have defaulted on such loans. They have all been demonized by the jew-owned press for their audacity.
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Ronald Jones Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Ang, I would not doubt that Bush and Obama has given our oil reserves to China in return for buying 2 trillion $s our worthless Us Treasuries. That is why good wells are capped all over the United States and US waters.
There is no reason we should be importing 2/3s of our oil. With the US dollar falling like a rock, imported oil will cost us more and more with every tick down of the US dollar.
Prior to viewing chuck’s list I was gone a ask where is Robert E. Lee. However he is listed there. Agree with most of his list but I still think he should have included John F. Kennedy. I believe JFK was our last true President & hopefully history will side with my belief.
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We the People did not elect “leaders” for us or anyone else. Politicians are our elected and appointed servants.
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We have Ted Nuggent….
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Ang has a very good point and so does Ron Jones. I can tell you this, the nuclear industry makes 1.5 million dollars profit per day per unit in this country. We now have 108 nuclear plants and I think I’ve probably worked on half of them through the years, but, with that kind of profit just think how many other units could be built just with the profits from the units on line now. 162 million per day in profit would not take long to pay for the cost of one unit. The average higher quality unit called a PWR costs about 3 billion to build. Every twenty-three days we could pay for one unit. Now, how is that for nation building. Just imagine the profit these other major corporations are making together. Then they take our annual raises from us for decades. My union in the Pipefitters has not had a good raise in a long time. Sure some of them have a good scale but not really neck and neck with the profit margin of the corps. They are planning to take our future away by devaluating the dollar to the point we can’t even live on our retirement. It’s all about the rush of baby boomers coming of age and these dogs of war plan to stop us from enjoying it. Just that simple. God bless you all my beloved American brothers and sisters. I stand, your watchman.
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http://www.reformation.org/synagogue-of-satan.html
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