I heard a story about a mother who got a call from school saying her daughter was ill. She hurried to pick her up -- the doctor was already overbooked that day but he could see her the next morning and in the meantime recommended some over-the-counter medicine to ease her symptoms. The mother tucked the little girl in bed, drove to the pharmacy, bought the medicine and hurried back to her car only to realize she had left her keys in the ignition and locked herself out. When she called her little girl to tell her what happened the little girl said "Mommy, I've seen it on TV you stick a coat-hanger down inside the window and the door's opened." So she got a wire coat-hanger from the store clerk. And Despite a few awkward attempts to unlock the door, she just couldn't get it and finally burst out in frustration "God, please help me, I'm here trying to figure this out, and my daughter's sick, and I have to get home, and I can't do it, please send someone to help me!"
Just then an old car pulled up to the curb and this rough tough looking man who looked like he hadn't shaved in a while got out...He didn't look to her like someone God would send, but he was there., she said Sir, can you help me? I've locked my keys in this car and I have this coat hanger and I don't know what to do with it." He said "Lady, give me the coat hanger." After bending it and inserting it down inside the window glass he opened the car door. The mother was so overwhelmed and relieved she threw her arms around the man gave him a hug and said "thank you, you're such a good man, ..." He said "lady, I'm no good man... I just got out of prison this morning." As he walked away the mother lifted her hands to heaven and said "thank you Lord, you sent me a professional."
Sometimes God answers prayer with the most unexpected people. The professionals God sends don't always look like we think they should, like Abraham Lincoln or Donald Trump.
In his 2018 State of the Union address Pres. Trump said "... As long as we are proud of who we are and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve."
We need to know without a doubt who we are, what we are fighting for and who, exactly, we are up against, in order to stand firm and fight the good fight today.
In the closing remarks of Lincoln's 1862 state of the union address(which at that time was just a written letter to Congress) he wrote "We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth." Did he mean America? He wrote these words after two years of Civil War with no end in sight. But just five years earlier when the Republican Party was brand-new he wrote:
"Upon those... who are in sentiment opposed to the spread of slavery rests the task of preventing it. The Republican organization is the embodiment of that sentiment... That Army is today the best hope of the nation and of the world."
We, Republicans, are the last best hope of Earth!
We are also conservatives which Lincoln defined as "adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?" he said
We still believe that OLD constitution and the wisdom of our founders remains timeless.
We are the party of truth. And it's that truth that will keep us free.
We are the original patriotic founders of American nationalism. Dinesh DeSousa in his book Death of a Nation points out that America's identity as a single nation wasn't established until after the Civil War. Prior to it "we were the United States, plural; only after Lee's surrender at Appomattox did we become the United States, singular."
And ever since, We have been a flag-waving people. Old Glory is today that central symbol of who we are as Americans. And the whole world knows it as the symbol of freedom. Only in America is it questioned as legitimate...
Donald Trump was born on Flag Day and is always very proud of that fact.The image of him hugging the flag is truly how he feels about it. He said, "Always remember - some things are worth fighting for. The American flag is one of them."
One could say that our flag was under attack during Lincoln's presidency in the same sense it is today. Half the nation back then rejected the stars and stripes-In fact, for 4 years they waved a different flag. They wanted nothing to do with it because it represented to them everything they were against. You see, we've been here before.
Today the Republican Party is poised again against a formidable foe. And if it truly is the last best hope of earth then its people must stand up and refuse to be bull-dozed, forgotten, ignored,, or canceled!
Lincoln condemned what the Democrats wanted-a different kind of nation-one that would fundamentally transform America into something no longer free. "It will blow out the moral lights around us," he warned
To Lincoln the battle against slavery was a moral fight.
Always reducing complicated questions to simplest terms: Lincoln summed up the Civil War with: "Slavery... you believe it's right...we believe it's wrong." As simple as that!
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of England during the Reagan years attacked socialism as immoral, not just wrong. It is immoral to steal from one person to give to another...to spend other people's money... and to promote the philosophy of dependence as better than work ethic.
The battle in America today between the two parties and the great chasm which divides us is as simple as that. Republicans must stand up because we are right! And they are wrong. Any other debate with the Liberal Left is senseless and they'll just call you names-racist, fascist, homophobic, etc.
Lincoln, in his second inaugural address said:
"both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came."
I believe America today is in a similar situation. The liberal left has declared war on the survival of our nation. And we must accept the fight...Trump looked them square in the face and simply said, "America will never be a socialist nation!"
As Trump continues as the GOP standard-bearer what battles await his attention? Will he, like Lincoln, overcome the forces which right now seek to destroy traditional America? It remains to be seen. But he is up to the challenge as the toughest Republican fighter since Abraham Lincoln.
Our historical past has so many lessons for our present. We've been here before and in order to fully appreciate what lay ahead we must learn from history, and fight for our history or America as we know it will be history! Newt Gingrich wrote "we are in the fight of our lives against a well financed, heavily organized, extremely militant coalition of people who despise us and the country for which we stand... This is not a time of compromise. This is a time of winning or losing. Each of us must decide if the America we love is worth fighting for. Our individual decisions will add up to victory or defeat."
When newly elected Lincoln left his Springfield home for Washington DC, he spoke from the heart in bidding farewell to his friends: "without the assistance of that Divine Being...I cannot succeed, "he said," With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him, who can go with me..., let us confidently hope that all will yet be well."
Trump echoed that same sentiment in 2018: "As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens and trust in our God, we will never fail." This trust must always be our guide.
One thing's for sure, according to Lincoln--those who are Republican in name only-the Rinos- have to go! He said, "Our cause... Must be entrusted to, and conducted by its own undoubted friends - those... whose hearts are in the work - to care for the result." Trump understands this as well as Lincoln did. Traitors in the ranks may lose us the war.
For the first 2 years of the Civil War, Lincoln was forever frustrated by his early generals, tho' not traitors, they never seemed to grasp that the southern armies were an enemy to be conquered; that just pushing them back onto "their side" was not getting the job done.
But in 1864 Lincoln finally put Grant in charge. This general demonstrated a bulldog grip that would not let go. When it was suggested that Grant perhaps had too many personal flaws to lead the union Army... Lincoln exclaimed, "I can't spare this man, he fights!"
And when rumors spread of Grant's taste for liquor Lincoln said:
"So Grant gets drunk, does he?... Well, you need not waste time getting proofs; you just find out, to oblige me, what brand of whiskey Grant drinks, because I want to send a barrel of it to each one of my generals." Sometimes, personal flaws just don't matter.
Gretchen Wollert, all rights reserved.