George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, were visionary - but flawed men. They wrote and signed their names to "All Men Are Created Equal," while no women were involved, and many of the men were slave owners. History tells us that many of them struggled with this, but economics and politics brought compromise that left many people without any rights, and others as property to be bought and sold.
George Washington's will freed many of his slaves upon the death of his wife Martha. She wrote to a friend that she feared that some of the slaves knew this fact, and might try to hasten their freedom. She granted most of them freedom before her death (most of whom then stayed on as underpaid sharecroppers.)
Thomas Jefferson had a long running relationship and children with one of his slaves. He was in debt, and could not free his slaves as his creditors had a lien on everything that he owned, including the human being that that was the mother of his children.
Franklin Roosevelt spent the time before he died with his mistress, not his wife.
When we think of the flaws of today's political leaders, we should look at the past. Look at the flaws of those before. And know that We The People have been down this road before, and We have found our way. And if we focus on what we have in common, not on what divides us, we will stand together into the future. The authority of the governed is granted by the people, not be hereditary, or god given authority.
I don’t mind some minor flaws in a politician as long as they harm nobody and their overall accomplishments are for the good of the nation. Nobody’s perfect after all. We have too many despicable politicians in the UK at the moment, all climbing the greasy pole and declaring no wrongdoing. Our most honest and trustworthy PM for decades has just resigned under pressure because he lacked public appeal by being relatively boring and didn’t crow enough about his many achievements. Sadly the great unwashed seem to be prepared to overlook the outrageous flaws of some politicians as long as they shout the right garbage. Bad behaviour gets all the kudos as it appeals to them more than real statesmanship and integrity. Politics is in a bad way these days.
ReplyDeletewe need to find an encourage middle of the road candidates.
DeleteAs Jean says, minor flaws are acceptable. Would you believe I have a couple? I suppose the difference now is that we know about many of the flaws in real time, yet 77 million seem to ignore serious flaws.
ReplyDeleteWe have been here before, we will prevail.
DeleteNo one is perfect and I would hope what when we know better, we do better, but then I look at today's White House and I see we've done far worse.
ReplyDeleteThe current administration is the biggest embarrassment since Nixon
DeleteWise words. As you said above, what we have is a huge embarrassment.
ReplyDelete