One man with courage makes a majority.
–Andrew Jackson
With the United States teetering on the brink of national bankruptcy, President Barack Obama must look to the past for a solution.It lies in what is arguably the greatest–and most dangerous–moment of the administration of President John F. Kennedy.
Addressing the Nation on October 22, 1962, Kennedy shocked his fellow citizens by revealing that the Soviet Union had installed offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba.
After outlining a series of steps he had taken to end the crisis, Kennedy sought to reassure and inspire his audience. His words are worth remembering today:
“The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are, but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world.
“The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.”
President Obama needs to send that message to the extortionists of the Republican Party. Like President Kennedy, he should schedule a prime-time address to the Nation. Among the truths he should bluntly reveal:
- Republicans have adopted the same my-way-or-else “negotiating” stance as Adolf Hitler.
- Like the Nazis, they are determined to gain absolute power–or destroy the Nation they claim to love.
- They raised the debt ceiling seven times during the eight-year Presidency of George W. Bush.
- But now that a Democrat holds the White House, they are, as Warren Buffett recently warned, “trying to use the incentive that we’re going to blow your brains out, America, in terms of your debt worthiness over time.”
- Seniors, in particular, should fear Republicans—who opposed the creation of Social Security in 1935 and have longed for decades to destroy it.
- Despite Republican lies, we cannot revitalize the economy by slashing taxes on the wealthy and on cash-hoarding corporations while cutting benefits for millions of average Americans.
- We will need both tax increases and sensible entitlement cuts to regain our economic strength.
- Contrary to Republican lies, we cannot starve our way to economic growth.
Finally, President Obama should end his speech by directly calling for the active support of his fellow Americans. Something like this:
“My fellow Americans, I have taken an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’
“But I cannot do this on my own. As citizens of a Republic, each of us carries that burden. We must each do our part to protect the land and the liberties we love.
“Tonight, I’m asking for your help. We stand on the edge of economic disaster.
“Therefore, I am asking each of you to stand up for America tonight–by demanding the recall of the entire membership of the Republican Party.
“As President John F. Kennedy said:
‘In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty.’
“This is the moment when each of us must decide–whether we will survive as a Republic, or allow ruthless political fanatics to destroy what has lasted and thrived for more than 200 years.”
President Obama has taken forceful action against America’s foreign enemies—most notably Osama bin Laden. If the Nation is to survive, he must now act just as forcefully against America’s domestic enemies.
In doing so, he may find history repeating itself. Joachim C. Fest, author of Hitler (l973), writes of the surprise that awaited Allied soldiers occupying Nazi Germany in 1945:
“Almost without transition, virtually from one moment to the next, Nazism vanished after the death of Hitler and the surrender….
“Hitler’s propaganda specialists had talked constantly of invincible Alpine redoubts, nests of resistance, and swelling werewolf units, and had predicted a war beyond the war. But there was no sign of this.
“Once again it became plain that National Socialism, like Fascism in general, was dependent to the core on superior force, arrogance, triumph, and by its nature had no resources in the moment of defeat.”
With luck, the same will prove true for the extortionists and blackmailers of the Republican Party.
