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Prowler Junkie

From:San Rafael, CA
Registered: Dec 2007
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posted 01-08-2019 05:53 PM                  

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From the start of his career, Lincoln foresaw how American democracy might end—not through foreign conquest, but by our own fading attachment to its institutions. “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher,” he said in 1838. “As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

During the Civil War, the government never shut down—not even when the capital was threatened by Confederate troops. A shutdown would have undermined the foundation of Lincoln’s cause, which was the ability of free people to rule themselves. The paralysis and dysfunction would have told the world that the government he led was no longer fully devoted to the cause for which other Americans had given the last full measure of devotion. A shutdown would have looked like the beginning of the end that Lincoln always knew was possible.
It makes sense that Donald Trump is indifferent to the paralysis of the government he leads, and that he welcomes a shutdown of months or even years. If shutdowns become routine, if politicians view the government in which they serve as a disposable tool, if we’re no longer capable of governing ourselves, this only reflects Trump’s contemptuous attitude toward democracy itself. Shuttered museums, federal workers who can’t pay their bills, national parks with stinking toilets: This is what Trump thinks of American republicanism. This is what the suicide of a great democracy looks like.
http://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/lincoln-memorial-during-government-shutdown/579610/

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Prowler Junkie

From:Chandler, AZ USA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 01-08-2019 06:12 PM                  

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Good article Reech!

Note that if you replace "Trump" with "congressional democrats" in the 3rd paragraph, it still reads the same...

Hope you're tuning in to Trump's address tonight!

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Prowler Junkie

From:Elk Grove Village, IL, USA
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posted 01-08-2019 06:44 PM                  

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And who is not paying their bills ... have not read anywhere where these poor sorry workers are not getting paid ... except fake news outlets.

And National Parks with stinking toilets? At least its not the Streets of Stinking San Francisco along with needle riddled storm drains .... yuck!!

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Prowler Junkie

From:Saint Johns , FL, United States
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Prowler Junkie

From:Live Free Or Die State, NH
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