Every generation seems to believe history starts and ends with it. This mindset has rapidly grown into the concept that history is unimportant. That, somehow, everything we are seeing/experiencing/enduring is the first/most/worst ever.
All things are wearisome,more than one can say.The eye never has enough of seeing,nor the ear its fill of hearing.What has been will be again,what has been done will be done again;there is nothing new under the sun.Is there anything of which one can say,“Look! This is something new”?It was here already, long ago;it was here before our time.No one remembers the former generations,and even those yet to comewill not be rememberedby those who follow them.
No doubt, our times are tough. But if we spend any time considering history - far distant and more recent - we would hear the echoes of those events and see the patterns of them in our current day. One big thought that keeps running through my mind is of those times when "victors" actually sow the seeds of future defeat, and worse, by their unwise actions.
Historians largely agree that much of the post-Civil War failures of Reconstruction were based in the extremely harsh measures many in the North (and especially the strongest abolitionists in the Republican Party) wanted to exact against the South in order to have the retribution they justly felt should be paid. The political failures continued into an IMPEACHMENT (!) of Andrew Johnson, who became President following the assassination of President Lincoln. Johnson was a southerner and wanted to lessen the blows to "his people." The results were Jim Crow Laws, deeper segregation, failed healing of the divisions and a continuing de facto enslavement that continued for how long? Until today in some ways? While the North "won" the war, they failed to win the desired outcome in peace. The statues that have been torn down in recent months throughout the South were pieces of the effort to bring peace. While it may have helped assuage some Southerners that they may have lost but they weren't "losers," there remained, generationally, a resentment between the North and South that continues today.
Likewise, the seeds of World War II, according to most historians, were planted in the Treaty of Versailles - which was the document sealing the "victory" of the Big Four: United States, Great Britain, France and Italy) against the defeated Germans and the Central Powers. Millions of soldiers and millions more civilians were killed in WWI - and let us not forget that the PANDEMIC (!) of Spanish Flu began near the end of the war which killed another 17,000,000 - 100,000,000 people. This was a time which shook the souls of those who lived through it. The War - now it is almost humorous that it was called "The War to End All Wars" - was so devastating because of the advances in technology, driven by both governments and private industry, were the most destructive known to man at the time. The Treaty, by forcing Germany to give up land, people and a sense of "who they were" and to pay financial reparations to the nations afflicted by the Central Powers, made the "victors" feel as though they had taught the aggressors a lesson. In the end, though, who or what was won by that War? The League of Nations (which not even the United States would ultimately support) grew from it and that brought an eventual United Nations. By overplaying their hand, by forcing tremendous pain (aside from what would have been unimaginable pain from war and pandemic) on the Germans, the Germans suffered in such a way that they were ready for a savior to bring them back to their entitled state - which led to Hitler - which led to history repeating itself - with led to another World War within 20 years of the one which should have stopped them all.
So, now, you ask - "Wilguess, why is there a photo of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi balanced with one of the recent attack at the US Capital?"
Great question, glad you asked. Today is January 14, 2021. The night of President Trump's State of the Union Address was February 5, 2020. Almost exactly a year ago, Speaker Pelosi made the hearts of many liberals and most Democrats swoon as she used her status, her platform and the setting to "win" against the evil Donald Trump by famously ripping up his speech behind him as he finished talking. Now, that act likely made many of her supporters and Trump detractors gleeful! I recall many news stories portraying her actions as a strong pushback against his "lies." Speaker Pelosi "won" the night!
Did she? Is she winning now?
The failure of current political leaders to work out their differences in some operational manner has been as destructive as the examples above. The Speaker used her power to belittle and attempt the humiliate the President and by extension the millions of Americans who would ultimately support him for re-election. When there is a failure in leadership - a vacuum of responsible actions - a nation comes unglued. So, the Speaker has won a narrow victory to remain in the majority - the narrowest in decades - and yet specifically calls out those in the GOP, in an August 2020 speech as "enemies of the State." She has, in just the past few days, brought about IMPEACHMENT charges, again, in a setting that will never see the process complete - theater for her adoring fans - burning resentment for those who hear her words, see her actions and recognize that they are "the enemy" she despises.
DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND - In no way was what happened at the US Capital last week justified by the Speaker, the President or any other person. There was no place for that in our nation. It was a horror! I remain angry, sad, revulsed that the building symbolizing our nation came under attack.
Nancy Pelosi, in her quest for power, however, needs to find a way forward that brings out, as Abraham Lincoln once said, "the better angels of our nature." She, as Speaker of the House, has a special responsibility to more than just her constituents, her Democrat members and her donors. As 3rd in line to the Presidency, the Speaker should be one who is laser focused on bringing Congress together, to build consensus and to assure continuity. Yet, she is one of the most divisive, power-driven Speakers in living memory.
We in Oklahoma were fortunate to have a man named Carl Albert who represented our state in Congress. He ultimately became the 46th Speaker of the House of Representatives and presided during another "unprecedented" time - when he legitimately could have become President. The Republican Vice-President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign for corruption. Richard Nixon was about to be IMPEACHED (!). Many around him argued that "the Little Giant from Little Dixie" should push the impeachment, force Nixon out and become the President. While he was willing to take the role if it fell to him, Albert believed the need for consensus and continuity was more important than turning the Presidency over "to the Party opposite." There were even secret plans which suggest he might resign as Speaker so that a Republican might become Speaker in order to assume the Presidency. His view was that patriotism and faithfulness to the institutions were ultimately more important than party power. Thus, Gerald Ford, a GOP Member of Speaker Albert's Congress was nominated and approved to become Vice-President and then President.
President Ford, ultimately pardoned former President Nixon (an act of political courage which likely cost him the 1976 election). Ford famously said "Our long national nightmare is over." The calls to punish, create enemies, crush the opposition, destroy, build power - all ignored by two members of the House - the Democrat Speaker who refused power and the never-elected President who knew when it was time to heal instead of appeal to the base instincts of those who want to take "a pound of flesh."
America and our political institutions recovered from the damage of Watergate and the horrors of Vietnam, political assassinations and domestic terrorism BECAUSE there were politcal leaders who stopped the finger pointing, the name-calling, the enemy-making to save the soul of the nation. Can Nancy Pelosi take that role or has she sold her political soul to the drive for power that benefits one party, one mindset, one thought and not the nation as a whole?
Her actions in the coming months will have much to do with her legacy of helping rebuild our nation or continuing down a path of self destruction.
