A few words about war, peace, economics, religion, education, and running the country from the past occupants of The White House.
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The debates on both sides of the aisle have begun and by this time next year, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will be getting ready to welcome new residents.
Politics for me is pretty personal. Personal in that I don’t share my opinions on social media or get involved in the rants that may run through my newsfeed. I don’t complain about what others are saying. It’s not my style and getting swept up in emotions from a political perspective is not how I wish to spend my time.
And I think I just spewed a little rant.
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I do however care about the world and issues and hope that someday, they will become the focus of campaigns, not, which political party leans to the right or the left, or who is voting a certain way only because it is the position “their” party is focussed on; regardless of the issue.
And I think I just spewed a little rant.
Whichever candidate ends with up the key to the White House, the incoming POTUS will likely say something memorable, even infamous.
Here are quotes made by several of the previous occupants of the highest office in the land, regardless of their political party. Maybe the new resident-to-be will take note.
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On War and Peace:
“Mankind must put an end to war — or war will put an end to mankind. ” – John F. Kennedy
“I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.” – Woodrow Wilson
We must teach our children to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons. – Bill Clinton
“War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.” – William McKinley
On Education:
“Think about every problem, every challenge, we face. The solution to each starts with education.” – George H.W. Bush
“When one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly.” – George Washington
On Politics:
“He serves his party best who serves the country best.” – Rutherford B. Hayes
“Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one.” – Herbert Hoover
On Governing:
“No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.” – Harry S. Truman
“The only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.” – William Henry Harrison
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden.” – Ronald Reagan
On Religion and Government:
“Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause; and I was not without hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy of the present age would have put an effectual stop to contentions of this kind.” – George Washington
“Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty. The external threat to liberty should not drive us into suppressing liberty at home. Those who want the government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.” – Harry S. Truman
On Economics:
“I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth or shapes it into a garment will starve in the process.” – Benjamin Harrison
“The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own.” – John Adams
On The Job Itself:
“A president’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.” – Lyndon Johnson
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Photo:Flickr/Josh Grenier