We have always survived and will this time. I am not about to throw in the towel.
We falter, we recognize, and finally we rise to what we should be as a country...heck, the same has happened to me a few times during my half century relationship with the Lord, my God.
I survived because I fell asleep, suffered, yet soon realized what I needed to survive...so shall this country. God is there and watching.
“A republican form of government is evidently the most rational form that men have devised for the protection of person and property, and for securing liberty. But hitherto no means have been devised to guard this form of government from abuse and corruption. Men in republics are as wicked, and as selfish as in monarchies, and with far more power to introduce disorders, both into legislation and into the administration of the laws. In republics, the influence of selfish and ambitious men over the weak, the ignorant and unsuspecting, has its full range of operation; and sooner or later, this influence will place in office incompetent men, or men who will sacrifice principle to personal emolument or aggrandizement. The corruption of the electors is the first step towards the ruin of republics; and when the sources of power are corrupted, the evil hardly admits of a remedy.”
....
“In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate—look to his character as a man of known principle, of tried integrity, and undoubted ability for the office.
“It is alleged by men of loose principles, or defective views of the subject, that religion and morality are not necessary or important qualifications for political stations. But the Scriptures teach a different doctrine. They direct that rulers should be men who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. But if we had no divine instruction on the subject, our own interest would demand of us a strict observance of the principle of these injunctions. And it is to the neglect of this rule of conduct in our citizens, that we must ascribe the multiplied frauds, breaches of trust, peculations and embezzlements of public property which astonish even ourselves; which tarnish the character of our country; which disgrace a republican government; and which will tend to reconcile men to monarchy in other countries and even in our own.
From Noah Webster “Letters to a Young Gentleman Commencing his education, 1823
Slater, Rosalie J. ; Hall, Verna M. ; Adams, Carole G.: Rudiments of America’s Christian History and Government : Student Handbook. 2nd rev. ed. San Francisco : Foundation for American Christian Education, 1994, S. 23, 25
Very encouraging post, thank you.