Quote Of The Day

President Calvin Coolidge
"It is not in violence and crime that our greatest danger lies. These evils are so perfectly apparent that they very quickly arouse the moral power of the people for their suppression. A far more serious danger lurks in the shirking of those responsibilities of citizenship, where the evil may not be so noticeable but is more insidious and likely to be more devastating."

"We live in a republic. A vital principle of that form of government is representation. More and more as our population increases it becomes necessary for the people to express their will through their duly chosen delegates. If we are to maintain the principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, if we are to have any measure of self-government, if the voice of the people is to rule, if representatives are truly to reflect the popular will, it is altogether necessary that in each election there should be a fairly full participation by all the qualified voters."

— Calvin Coolidge, April 19, 1926 from his speech to the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, DC.


I dare say that the first danger is a direct result of falling prey to the second. Even though many are disillusioned with the Congress and with the candidates for the Presidency, this is no time to shrink back from our duty as citizens of the United States to be engaged in the democratic process.

As I have mentioned here, I am utterly amazed that the leaders in Congress can be so totally impotent on anything that is remotely important. Because it is an election year with a "lame-duck" President Congress sits on its hands.

I am furious that Congress needs a week's vacation for every minor National Holiday that comes along - longer for the more widely celebrated ones. If our country's business was run the way that the Congress is our economy would look more like Somalia's than that of one of the world's economic leaders.

But what can I do?

There are two things that I can do. The first is the most powerful. I can pray. I can pray for God to strengthen and encourage those who are in Washington as statesmen, looking to build our country up. I can intercede for the Lord to expose those who are only in Washington to line their pockets and stroke their egos. I can implore the Creator to uncover the corruption, immorality, and duplicity of the ungodly who have risen to power. I can petition the Almighty to remove those in our government whose hearts continually run toward evil. And I can ask the hand of Providence to put godly men in the place of those that He removes.

I can also educate myself, educate others, and vote. What a tremendous privilege we have in this nation to determine as a people who will govern us. Yes, it is God who makes the ultimate decision - this is why prayer is so important - but He graciously allows us to have a voice.

Don't give up out of frustration. We have a responsibility to act.

As President Coolidge said later in his speech:

"The perilous aspect of this situation lies in as insidiousness. With the broadening of popular powers, the direct election of practically all public officials, and the direct nomination of most of them, there is no opportunity for an expression of the public will except at the ballot box. It is perfectly evident that all those who have selfish interests will go to the polls and will be active and energetic in securing support for their proposals and their candidates. The average voter supports what he believes to be the public interest. Unless they appear on election day that interest will go UNREPRESENTED." (Emphases mine.)

We cannot afford to give tacit approval to "those who have selfish interests." They would sell America to the highest bidder - to her destruction. We must stay involved.