“If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation.”
-- Samuel Adams, letter to Elbridge Gerry
3 comments:
Now if we could only find such a person, we could get him or her to run for office. Of course, they would be soundly defeated because those are not the qualities necessary to be elected in these United States.
There are modest members of Congress. As Winston Churchill said of such people, though, they usually have much to be modest about. On the other hand, there are those who, were they more self-reflective, might consider modesty as a live option - such as Alberto Gonzalez, who proved yesterday how utterly incompetent he is.
Where's Harry Truman when you need him?
I think there are good, modest members of Congress. I feel like I've voted for some of them. They're just overshadowed by the ones caught with prostitutes and others caught with bags of money in the freezer.
Harry Truman is an interesting case. He was actually quite disliked while he was president. Pretty low approval ratings, links to some rather seedy political insiders etc. However, history has been rather kind to him.
Of course, DL doesn't like that President Truman was responsible for the Department of Defense and the CIA.
Post a Comment