The Two republicans/Republicans
Let me begin with some not-so-breaking news: We’re living in a nation of discord and disorder. I want to talk tonight about two republicans who can lead all of America back to a patriotism that will lead to the Constitutional ideal of domestic tranquility.
The first of the republicans is the small r republican. Maybe that’s you—I hope so. A small r republican believes our rights come from God, and not from government. A small r republican believes in personal sovereignty and individual liberty. To the small r republican, government is a servant that protects, not a master that dictates. A small r republican adheres to the Judeo-Christian ethic. As John Adams wrote, “Our Constitution is fit only for a religious and moral people.”
Small r republicanism was summed up in four lines by Francis Scott Key:
“Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, In God is our trust.
And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
The second Republican I’m referring to came into being in 1854, the capital R Republican. That probably is all of us in this room. While the War of Independence established a new nation conceived in liberty, this new nation over its first 80 years had become torn over the tyranny of tariffs and slavery. In 1854, in a one room school house in Ripon, Wisconsin, the capital R Republican Party was founded to become the brand for small r republicans and to carry the torch of liberty for all Americans.
Within 11 years of its founding, the Republican Party had achieved its biggest goal–ending slavery with the passage of the 13th Amendment to our Constitution. Yes, the price was high–a horrible and horrifying civil war, and the assassination of the leader of the Republican Party and our nation. But the accomplishment was greater than any political party has achieved anywhere in history, before or since.
The Grand Old Party did not rest on its laurels after the Civil War. Reconstruction of this riven nation began under the eminent leadership of the 18th President, Republican Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was as magnanimous to the Southern states as he was with General Lee and Confederate troops at Appomattox. Do not listen to the historians, folks, about President Grant. They generally rate him as one of the worst presidents. In fact, he was a unifying president, highly successful, and fully committed to the moral principles of God, freedom, and the Flag. As president, he was beloved in the North and respected in the South.
Another Republican president whom the historians have badly slandered was the 29th President, Warren Harding. Harding’s respect for the personal freedom of Americans cured both the inflation and the recession he inherited from Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Harding also proposed on multiple occasions to establish federal laws to stop the lynching of black Americans, only to have Democrats in Congress defeat the bills.
I’d like to bring up now two seemingly unrelated events, nearly 50 years apart, to illustrate how the Republican Party brand promulgated American ideals in the 20th century and now into the 21st.
During the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, a signature event in world history occurred on August 8, 1908, 8/8/8. Today we marvel and celebrate that America landed men on the moon, but if you think about it, getting off the ground in the first place was a far more difficult challenge. In the very early 1900s, powered flight for humans was a sputtering and terribly dangerous enterprise. Outside of Dayton OH, the best anyone had accomplished was a sometimes takeoff (always iffy), followed by uncontrolled flight for some unknown distance, followed by a very hard landing or outright crash, where often the pilot did not walk away.
On that Saturday of 8/8/8 in LeMans, France, American Wilbur Wright was to demonstrate controlled flight to the world for the first time. About a thousand upper-crust Europeans, including nobility and aspiring aeronauts, assembled that day mostly expecting the Wright brothers’ claim of controlled flight to be exposed as a fraud. Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, after meticulously checking his craft, Wilbur announced, “I will fly now.” He started the engine of his Wright Flyer, got it smoothly off the ground and high into the air at which point he did a figure 8 across the field above the spectators, demonstrating complete control of his aircraft. Then he softly landed his plane exactly in the spot where he had taken off. The crowd was stunned. They had never imagined such a sight. Europe’s best known aviator said only, “We are babies compared to the Wrights.”
I bring this story up not because it’s a political story. It’s not. And it is only remotely connected to the Republican Party. Far as I know, Wilbur and Orville never had any political leanings. I bring it up because of what was reported the next day in the Sunday Paris newspaper. The front page headline story about Wilbur Wright’s performance accurately detailed the most remarkable thing ever seen, an accomplishment of human ingenuity and daring never thought possible and done with total calm and control. Then the report concluded with this: Wilbur Wright will be flying again tomorrow on Monday, but he will not be flying today because “like a good American, he respects the Sabbath.”
Perhaps that was a long time ago, when it was a given that good Americans respected the Sabbath and God Almighty. But the unity of God and Country, has never been lost on our Republican Party.
Thanks to Republicans, this unity was made explicit in 1954. At the request of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, two words were officially added to the pledge of allegiance on Flag Day, June 14, 1954. Two words, “under God,” rang out not just in America that day, but internationally as the first salvo in the Cold War against the communists in the Soviet Union and China.
As Paul Harvey would have said, now this is the rest of that story. On February 7, 1954, President Eisenhower attended Sunday service at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, a few blocks from the White House, as part of a tradition to honor the memory of Abraham Lincoln, who had regularly attended services in that church. In his sermon that day, Rev. George MacPherson Docherty called for the inclusion of the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance, words from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” Rev Docherty’s point was that America’s greatness does not stem from military or economic might or any combination of the two, but only from moral righteousness. Eisenhower left church that day and immediately communicated with leaders of Congress that he wanted those two words added to the pledge through Congressional legislation.
Republican Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan, born and raised in PA, introduced the legislation on February 10, because February 10, 1954, was the 5th Anniversary of the imprisonment by the communists of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary. Cardinal Mindszenty had been imprisoned by the Nazis during WW II for the same reason that the commies imprisoned him after WWII: Preaching against atheistic totalitarianism. Thus, the addition “under God” in America’s Pledge of Allegiance was a declaration to the world that America would be steadfast in opposing the Godless evil of communism.
But that’s only part of the rest of the story. Here’s the rest of the rest of the story. Two years later in 1956, there was a people’s uprising in Hungary against its communist government. Before the Soviet tanks rolled in to squash the rebellion, Cardinal Mindszenty had been rescued from prison and given refuge in the American embassy in Budapest. Though forced to remain in that sanctuary for 15 years, the embassy was American soil, he had become one of us, an American patriot.
Folks, true patriots love their country when she is right. When she is wrong, true patriots love her even more through God-directed efforts to bring the ship of state back on course.
Which brings me back to our starting point. There is much that is wrong in America today. There are too many capital R Republicans who have forgotten we are the brand and stewards for small r republicanism. And the Democrat Party has even more serious problems. Democrat Julian Epstein laments that his party has embraced a culture of death and nihilism with a denial of objective truth.
But however broken we are as a nation, there is nothing that can’t be fixed with an appeal to Heaven. Of the conservative philosophy built on Judeo-Christian beliefs, small r republicanism, Rush Limbaugh used to implore, “Learn it; love it; live it.” That’s what we capital R Republicans should commit ourselves to every day. Learn it, love it, live it.
Besides prayer and moral discipline, there are other practical ways for us to advance our beliefs, starting with electing good, patriotic candidates to office. We have two running for state-wide judicial office, most notably Maria Battista, the Republican nominee for the Superior Court and the Republican nominee for Commonwealth court, Matt Wolford. Give them your vote, and support them with all the patriotic fervor you can muster. It wouldn’t hurt for you to chip in a few bucks too–a state-wide campaign is a daunting task and a donation of any size will help. Above all, pray for these candidates and our commonwealth and our nation.
As for the three dreadful State Supreme Court justices up for retention, well, there’s a reason the retention election is in NOvember. NO in NOvember. Their resumes include un-Constitutionally gerrymandering Congressional districts, legalizing election fraud, and granting illegitimate powers of tyranny to the governor during the pandemic. The damage their rulings have inflicted on our Commonwealth is incalculable.
You might think it’s a longshot to get a majority of No votes against retention. Well, it is. But we heard from Attorney General Dave Sunday tonight and he was a longshot in 2024. Donald Trump was a longshot to win PA and the nation in 2016. Just last year, Dave McCormick was a really longshot to defeat Bob Casey. We’ve proven Republicans can beat the odds. On election day, we’ll beat the odds again.
And while you’re voting NO on retaining the State Supremies, go ahead and vote NO on retaining Alice Beck Dubow on the Superior Court and Michael Wojcik on the Commonwealth Court. Nothing blatantly disturbing about either of them, except they stand with the Democratic Party, which has spared no expense in undermining justice in Pennsylvania and throughout America.
Thank you for your attention tonight, folks, and for all you do for our state and nation. Thanks to the Bedford County Republican Party and especially Christine Ebersole for the invitation to speak tonight. It is a real honor.
God bless all of you, our Commonwealth, and the USA!