The second coming?

In 1858, a virtually unknown state legislator from Illinois seized the attention of the nation with his message of national unity. “A nation divided against itself cannot stand”, the young lawyer said, and he followed up his speech with a run for the open US Senate seat.

We all know the rest. Abraham Lincoln defeated John Breckinridge in 1860 (despite having won NO southern states). His opponents said that he was too young (only fifty-one in 1860). They said that he was inexperienced (eight years in the Illinois legislature). Despite these claims, most found Lincoln’s optimism about bridging the gap between North and South refreshing. Unlike most Republicans, Lincoln did not advocate war with the South. History students can recite how the story ends. Lincoln’s election leads to the secession of South Carolina, which led to Fort Sumter, which led to the Civil War. Four years and nearly six-hundred and fifty thousand deaths later, the institution of slavery was over and the Union was one again.

Fast forward to 2004. An unknown Illinois legislator named Barack Obama takes the stage in Boston to make the biggest speech of his life, a speech that will propel him into the national spotlight. In his speech, the young lawyer proclaimed that “there is no liberal America and there is no conservative America. There is only a United States of America”. The “audacity of hope” was the modern day “house divided” speech. . Four years later, the whispers of “Obama in 08” have turned into shouts.

Obama was against the war in Iraq in the months leading up to invasion in 2003. His detractors say he’s too young. He’ll be forty-seven in 2008. They say that he’s too inexperienced. He’ll have served the people of Illinois both on a state and a federal level. Unlike Lincoln, we don’t know how his story ends. Lincoln’s election led to a victory in the U.S. Civil War. According to David McCullough, “history is a guide to navigation in perilous times”. The country and a volunteer army rallied behind Lincoln as he secured Atlanta, Vicksburg, and Columbia. Perhaps it will take an unknown, untested, young lawyer from Illinois to secure Baghdad, Ramadi, and Fallujah.

Your thoughts?

Welcome to the Patriot of '76

"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator to certain inalienable rights; that among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
- United States Declaration of Independence from Great Britain

In 1776, the second Continental Congress formed a five person committee to write a formal declaration that would change the course of history forever. When Thomas Jefferson's document was submitted to John Dunlap for printing (after much revision by the Congress, including the deletion of all mentions to slavery), America's birth certificate had been completed.
This declaration laid out what kind of country we were to become. While Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and Hancock had no experience living in a democracy, they knew exactly what kind of nation they did NOT want. They did not want a King with complete control over the judiciary, or with any influence over the media. Freedom of Religion. Freedom of assembly. Free-market economy. They did not want a country where one's lot in life was determined by your last name. Most importantly, they certainly did not want to live in a country in which threat of punishment motivates citizens to blindly follow the will of one person. To paraphrase FDR, we all want the "freedom from fear". Instead, they took one of the greatest risks in human history: they created a nation where the desire of the citizens guide governmental actions. Two hundred and fifty years later, it's safe to say that their experiment in republican government has been successful.

Finalized by the framers of the Constitution in 1789, the leaders of our nation are completely dependent on what we think and how we live. It is in the best interest of elected politicians, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, to ensure that Americans are safe, jobs are provided, and civil liberties are protected, If they fail to live up to their end of the social contract, losing their jobs is the least of their worries. Presidents who betray our trust (Nixon, Harding, Clinton), compromised our quality of life (A. Johnson, Harding, Hoover), or who lacked the backbone to address matters of national security (Pierce, Buchanan, Carter) take/will take shameful executive legacies to their graves.

However, history immortalizes the men that have lived up to our nation's purpose. When Andrew Jackson worked to lift property requirements for registered voters, he was widening the umbrella of republican government. When Rosa Parks refused to give her seat up on that bus in Montgomery, its been said that the ghost of Jefferson was reading the Declaration in her ear. After Union forces defeated the Confederacy at Antietam in 1862, Lincoln recognized the first moment in US History to broaden the ideals (and original intent) of Jefferson to the newest Americans. When six young men from all across the country, from Appleton, Wisconsin to Hilltop, Kentucky, raised an oversized flag over Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima in 1945, they were reaffirming Madison's idea in Federalist 85 that security leads to the spread of "liberty and and prosperity".

What does all of this mean for the average high school student? Why is studying government important? The founders of our nation took a tremendous risk in creating a republican government. They decided to leave all matters to the people (we'll get to the electoral college later). In other words, we decide our own fate. Leaders get democratically elected, and then must face the voters two or four or six years later. They must prove their effectiveness. They must answer for their actions. They must speak to your issues. Since this is a government of the people, the people must be informed. How can a person ace a calculus test if they've never opened the textbook? We must know the issues. We must understand the complexities and the inner workings of our government. We must fully recognize the political ideology of our elected officials. In a democratic republic like ours, the people can ill afford ignorance or apathy.

Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, Rush, and Morris disagreed on a countless number of issues. However, they had one thing in common- they agreed to place their government in our hands. We live in the information age. News is available at the click of a button, twenty-four hours a day. We have no excuse. The fate of our nation is in the hands of the citizen, and we live in times far too perilous to not take this responsibility seriously.

This site was created for the purpose of discussion of the issues. The site will contain the opinions of students, community members, and anyone in the blagosphere on a huge range of topics. We will be honest. We will be factual. We will hold our leaders accountable. We will, above all other things, embody the spirit of our founding fathers by being "Patriots of '76".