Is The Day Of Great Leaders Past?
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
By Pastor Chuck Baldwin
NewsWithViews.com
James Knox Polk, the 11th president of the United States
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A recent column co-authored by John Eidsmoe and Ben DuPré struck
me. They titled their column, “What
makes a ‘great’ president?”
The
basic thrust of the column was to examine the qualities that make one
a “great” President. They start by examining the Presidency
of our 11th President, James K. Polk. They note that Polk is commonly
regarded as being one of America’s top 12 greatest Presidents. To use
their words, “between eighth and 12th among our greatest presidents.”
Eidsmoe
and Dupré note that Polk was undoubtedly a man of outstanding
Christian character and faith. They say that Polk was "the only
president who kept and fulfilled every one of his campaign promises."
They observe him to be a man “with a Puritan work ethic, [who]
literally worked himself to death as president, retired from office
in broken health and died 103 days later.”
But
Polk also greatly expanded the power of the Presidency. “In 1846,
President Polk sent American troops into disputed territory where they
were almost certain to become embroiled in hostilities, and then demanded
that Congress recognize that a state of war already existed. Increasingly
with Polk’s presidency and thereafter, the president set national policy
and the Congress rubber-stamped the president’s decisions.”
Eidsmoe
and Dupré note that the people who are charged with rating our
Presidents are commonly academicians, “and as such they tend to
be left of center. They believe in centralized power, and they therefore
admire presidents who increased federal power and concentrated it in
the presidency.”
In
this regard, Eidsmoe and Dupré are 100% correct. Look at the
heroes of liberal historians and who do you find? Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow
Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt. Not by accident, these same historians
will extol the virtues of Hammurabi, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne,
and Napoleon. All these men have one thing in common: they were responsible
for expanding (either by force or fraud) a centralized government.
Eidsmoe
and Dupré correctly challenge the standard by which greatness
is determined and offer alternatives to the avant-garde, politically
correct formula. They proffer that “the truly great men of history
are those who have defended and preserved individual liberty by resisting
the increase and centralization of government power.”
To
that I say a hearty “AMEN.”
Eidsmoe
and Dupré then offer their own list of great men, which includes
Judas Maccabeus, Cato and Cicero, Hermann the Liberator, Archbishop
Stephen Langton of Canterbury, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce,
and George Washington and Patrick Henry.
This
brought to mind the fact that, several months ago, I had asked my friend,
Howard Phillips, to rate his favorite US Presidents. This was his response:
1)
George Washington: for the standard he established during his Presidency.
2) Thomas Jefferson: for his commitment to religious liberty and for
recognizing the role of the states as he spelled out in the Virginia
and Kentucky Resolutions.
3) Andrew Jackson: for his opposition to the second bank of the United
States.
4) John Tyler: for his role in the admission of Texas to the Union.
5) James Polk: for advancing America’s “manifest destiny.”
6) Grover Cleveland: for his fidelity for the Constitution of the United
States.
7) Calvin Coolidge: for his commitment to low taxes and limits on Federal
spending as well as for his good character.
As
for my personal list of greatest Presidents, it would largely mirror
Howard's list, with one deviation. I would suggest:
1)
George Washington: America’s greatest President, without whom this republic
would not exist. His “Farewell Address” is the greatest political
speech ever delivered on American soil and should be regarded as “must-reading”
for every American citizen.
2) Thomas Jefferson: America’s greatest defender of individual liberty
and states' rights.
3) James Monroe: for his leadership in establishing America's strategically
important “Monroe Doctrine.”
4) Andrew Jackson: for standing up against the bankers.
5) John Tyler: for defying his own party (Whigs) and twice vetoing the
incorporation of the US Bank. And also for supporting the Southern cause
for secession.
6) Grover Cleveland: for his honesty and devotion to the US Constitution.
7) Calvin Coolidge: for his dogged determination to limit taxes and
federal spending.
As
for my suggested list of personal heroes, those are already chronicled
on my Wikipedia page. See
it here.
Interestingly
enough, Dupré and Eidsmoe's hero candidates, William Wallace
and Patrick Henry, also grace my list of heroes as posted on my Wikipedia
page.
One
will notice that there are hardly any modern-day heroes mentioned on
my list. I also observed that there were no modern-day heroes mentioned
by John Eidsmoe and Ben Dupré in their column. Indeed. Where
are the real heroes in national public office today?
Our
national leaders (from both parties) seem to be shortsighted opportunists,
possessing little regard for their oaths to the US Constitution, the
principles of decency, or even plain, old-fashioned common sense. Both
major parties in Washington, D.C., offer the American people varying
degrees of socialism. Neither party demonstrates even tacit devotion
to constitutional government. Federalism and limited government have
all but disappeared under the oversight of both Republican and Democratic
leaders. These disastrous Presidents (from Johnson, Nixon, and Carter
to Clinton and Bush I & II) calmly leave office with no regret or
remorse for the devastation, death, and deception that they inflicted
upon the country. They live in the lap of luxury and comfort without
the slightest tinge of conscience as to the massive destruction done
to our Constitution, not to mention our economy, security, and way of
life. Beyond that, our congressmen and senators are mostly miscreants
in the similitude of Nancy Pelosi and Lindsey Graham.
It’s
hard to imagine there was a time when giants once lived among us. It's
hard to recall a day when the word "hero" really meant something.
Today, everyone is called a hero. Well, as one Marine Corps veteran
recently said, “If everyone is a hero, no one is a hero.”
Amen!
Perhaps
more than anything, America needs great leaders once again. Men who
are not enamored with power and wealth. Men who are more concerned with
honoring their word and preserving the Constitution than they are being
reelected and receiving a government pension. Men who really do respect
the people that elected them. Men who are willing to be unpopular, if
that is the cost of honesty and integrity. Men who know the difference
between the eternal and the temporal. And, yes, men who know the meaning
of the word AMERICAN.
Is
the day of great leaders past? With few exceptions, it would appear
so. And that--more than anything else—is why we are in the mess we
are in today.
So,
while you are saying your prayers tonight, don't forget to ask God to
give us some men like Washington and Jefferson. We could sure use them
about now.
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Chuck Baldwin is Founder-Pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. In 1985 the church was recognized by President Ronald Reagan for its unusual growth and influence.
Dr. Baldwin is the host of a lively, hard-hitting syndicated radio talk show on the Genesis Communications Network called, “Chuck Baldwin Live” This is a daily, one hour long call-in show in which Dr. Baldwin addresses current event topics from a conservative Christian point of view. Pastor Baldwin writes weekly articles on the internet http://www.ChuckBaldwinLive.com and newspapers.
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