Our Confederacy in Crisis

America is in crisis and it is not the first time. The difference now is that some of our greatest Presidents got us through bad times because well, they were just great Presidents. Everyone   is fighting over politics these days and our nation is as divided as ever. The crisis has already gone into not just verbal debating but into death threat bombings on our former Presidents and everyone wants to lock up a different politician somewhere.

Abraham Lincoln entered office with the country about to erupt into a civil war that would lead to 600,000 dead. Teddy Roosevelt was thrust into office with the rich and the poor hating each other so much that the talk of revolution was in the air. Franklin D. Roosevelt came into power when the Great Depression ruined our economy that Americans were thrust into extreme poverty. Lindon Johnson was thrust into his Presidency in one night just after John Kennedy was assonated. He had a civil rights bill that was filled with controversy where rioting over racial issues divided our country. Although these four Presidents expressed skills and strengths they had real problems controlling outrage in our country. There is outrage now in our country and Trump is doing nothing to calm people down. He encourages the divide.

Leadership in a Democracy requires a two way street. After each crisis the four Presidents faced, a healing process followed. Can or will Trump heal our current wounds? We as Americans got through the anti-slavery movement despite what Krazy Konway says. We got through the Progressive Movement and the Civil Rights Movement all that laid down the foundation   to enduring change. Disunity is not in our present but it is also deeply damaging to Democracy as a whole. Trump and all his Dictator friends would love to see him ruin America’s great democracy that our Constitution was built on. Trump would love to be a Dictator granting him the Presidency job for all his lifetime.

Theodore Roosevelt   warned us that Democracy is ruined and gone when regions, classes, race and parties regarded one another as the other folks rather than as citizens marked by fellow feelings and thoughts banding together for the best possible solution to a dire problem. I will never forget how nothing else mattered anymore and All Americans banded together after the 911 disaster. Do we need to have another horrific disaster for us to band together? Is the world on the road   toward  World War III since refugees are running everywhere to get away from their homelands?

Franklin Roosevelt insisted that problems created by man must be solved by man so long as we pull together toward a common end. We do have many encouraging signs of healing despite daily tragedies of senseless shootings everywhere in America.  Activism is a good thing. It means that we care enough to protest and stand there peacefully and willingly get arrested for a greater cause even if it ruins our lives personally. When young voices get involved there is hope for our future. A diverse group of new candidates including many women in politics is a good thing since more than half the population is women. If the change we seek in November will be positive and inclusive depends not only on our leaders but on us all. What we as individuals do NOW how and if we unite can make all the difference in a good and United States of America.

It is time for us to revisit   Lincoln’s want that we engage together in calm and   in enlarged consideration ranging far above personal and partisan politics. I believe in the moral vision and purpose that saved America in past turbulent times in American History. If we can do all that then America will be restored to greatness again and Trump has nothing to do with it anymore. The people have got to be civil, moral, and show some integrity toward each other in this country for us all to survive yet another crisis in America.