Saving The Great Republic

Preface / Introduction
Call me now for your FREE Internet marketing consultation. $100 value. Let an expert show you RIGHT NOW how to profit online every single day without leaving home. Call me Barbara Buegeler now, (325) 203-1941. LIVE 24/7/365. Your success guaranteed. Im waiting for your call RIGHT NOW! Our country is facing a time of colossal change and, whether we like it or not, or believe it, what we do now will determine our future. Each of us has a responsibility as a part of this country to DO something and be heard. Each of us has a responsibility as well to choose those who would represent us. Therefore, what follows is a series of articles written by Dr. Jeffrey Lant, CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., that address various aspects of that issue.

Table of Contents
1. On board the Ferdinand Magellan with Harry Truman. A great set-piece of American politics with a moral for all of today's 'leaders'. 2. 'Look away Dixie Land!' The day that determined the outcome of the U.S. Civil War. The Battle of Hampton Roads, March 9, 1862. And you are there.... 3. Abraham Lincoln... captivated by words, created by words, empowered by words, glorified by words. Reflections on his Cooper Union Speech, February 27, 1860. 4. Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool reopens. Thoughts on the man, his enduring greatness, and why over 24 million people visit annually and come away refreshed in mind and spirit. 5. Is there a future for the GOP? Yes, but only if they heed these admonitions and recommendations. Otherwise the party's marginalization will continue, its end certain, ignominious.

Saving The Great Republic

On board the Ferdinand Magellan with Harry Truman. A great set-piece of American politics with a moral for all of today's 'leaders'.
By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. No air ship can ever compare with the great age of American railroads. Air vessels are good for one thing and one thing only, speed... for arriving and leaving just as fast as possible. There is no allure in this... no bliss... no romance... and most certainly no grandeur and luxury. But it is very different with railroads... very different indeed. It is the difference between eating to live and dining for fulfillment and total satisfaction. It is the difference between a pedestrian thing of mere utility... and an essential experience of life which once had you must have yet again, or pine and regret you have settled for less. Grandeur on the tracks... History in the making. Now, I've got your ticket to travel as a passenger on one of the grandest railway cars of all... the Ferdinand Magellan. For the incidental music to this article, I have selected one of the best known railroad songs, "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe." It was written by Johnny Mercer for the 1946 film "The Harvey Girls" where it was sung by Judy Garland. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year. This much sung song (available in any search engine) makes you want to play hookey for a few days, rushing out and grabbing a ticket to -- anywhere. Because you see, with a railroad it is not only where you are going... but, always, how you're going there. And on the Ferdinand Magellan you were on your way to the White House... if your name was Harry Truman. The 1948 coronation for future president Thomas E. Dewey... governor of the great Empire State. Harry S. Truman was President of the United States in 1948, but from the way the media (which meant newspapers, radio and film) discussed him, you'd think he was a laughable reject who slipped into the Oval Office, and now refused to go back to Missouri. Every known form of ridicule and ribaldry was used to define this man and make fun at his expense. "To err is Truman," said Mrs. Robert Taft, wife of the lordly Senator from Ohio, a man who thought he was born to follow in his father's footsteps and so gain the White House without perspiring. Governor Dewey and all the others felt the same way and decried the little man in the job, the job he was so clearly not up to handling and, besides, was an embarrassment to a great nation which, by right, should be secure in the hands of men like -- them! Nor was this the view of just one party, either; these sentiments were aired, and robustly, too, by gentlemen of every political complexion. Truman not only spoke for the common man... he was the common man. And this, it was universally agreed, would never do. And so all the princes of the land saw themselves as kings.... until the 1948 campaign came down to a three-way split in the Democratic party -- Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina the Dixiecrat candidate of race baitiing segregationists... former Vice President Henry Wallace, the candidate of One World progressives, soft on Communism and "Uncle Joe" Stalin... and then Governor Dewey, the Republican candidate, who narrowly failed to defeat President Roosevelt in 1944 and was measuring his morning suit for January 20, 1949 the day he became president, and a http://www.FutureProsperityZone.com Copyright Barbara Buegeler - 2012 4 of 18

Saving The Great Republic Man of Destiny. It was at this moment in America, that Harry Truman ensconced himself in the Ferdinand Magellan... and changed everything for everyone... surprising everyone but himself. What a way to go.... When I speak of Harry Truman's great railway campaign across America in 1948 as unique, I mean exactly that. It was the only private railway car ever fitted out for the exclusive use of the President of the United States. .. eighty-three feet in length and painted the standard dark green of the Pullman Company, once headed by Abraham Lincoln's only surviving son, Robert. It was built in 1928 as one of several luxury cars named for famous explorers, including Marco Polo and David Livingstone. The government commandeered it for President Roosevelt in 1942, overhauled to become a mobile fortress, luxury and armaments mixed in immediate proximity. From this flexible palace, this man of Independence, Missouri, this reviled little man so far behind in the polls pollsters didn't bother to poll any more, this man of fiery spirit and determination meant to go forth and make his case... He told his sister "It will be the greatest campaign any President ever made. Win, lose, or draw people will know where I stand." And he was as good as his word. He had one chance... and he seized it with avidity, joy, fortitude and gratitude. It was a cocktail we all could use. On Friday, September 17, 1948, Harry Truman, accident of history, went to Washington's Union Station ,Track 15, where his 17-car special train packed with some 70 folks stood waiting for him. It contained diners, lounges, sleepers, a press car, a dynamo car for power, a communications car where radio teletype would provide continuous contact with Washington and the rest of the world near war because of the Soviet blockade of ravished Berlin. Everything was there -- including unprecedented security -- but the last, most essential thing... the passenger for whom all this was assembled.... Truman arrived exactly on time, looking "positively bouyant", his daughter Margaret remembered. Vice presidential candidate Senator Alben Barkley of Kentucky, about to begin his own odyssey by plane, shouted "Mow 'em down, Harry." And Truman shouted back, "I'm going to give 'em hell," and so one of the most famous political phrases was thrown down as a gauntlet to the world... Never before, never after, never say die. The 1948 campaign was built on a series of "certainties": * Harry Truman was a certain loser. * No man had ever won the presidency with his party so splintered. * There was no point in polling because people had made up their minds and that was that. * You couldn't win the highest office in the land with so little money. * And you couldn't win with so many people thinking you so incompetent and over your head. Yet in 33 days, from the platform at the back of the car, where he greeted his fellow citizens and introduced them to "the Boss," Bess Truman... and his beautiful daughter "Miss Margaret'," Harry Truman touched people, opened minds, and made friends, in the process firmly establishing him as a likable man who knew them, not just as politician but as neighbor, so very different from disdainful Governor Dewey, who thought even unbending condescension too good for the people who made America great... And so, indefatigable (whilst all the members of his party wilted), feisty to a degree, always positive, determined to rouse America and bring the importances of this campaign starkly into focus for all... little by little, at each whistle stop, he inched ahead. And so as Dewey floated aimlessly above the http://www.FutureProsperityZone.com Copyright Barbara Buegeler - 2012 5 of 18

Saving The Great Republic fray, arrogant, disliked, mouthing nothing but platitudes that touched and uplifted no one, Harry Truman got in there and fought for the right to be the chief representative of the nation and their engine for a better life. This great railroad extravaganza did not win Truman the presidency... but it transformed him from a certain loser to a possible winner, a man gone from hopeless to plausible while riding in the greatest railway car ever built, over the greatest network of track ever laid, en route to the greatest people on earth, asking them to confer the greatest office on earth on him by first giving him a listen. And they did. Afterword On January 20, 1949, Harry S. Truman was inaugurated as President of the United States for a full term in his own right.

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Saving The Great Republic

'Look away Dixie Land!' The day that determined the outcome of the U.S. Civil War. The Battle of Hampton Roads, March 9, 1862. And you are there....
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. The American Civil War began April 12, 1861 with the firing of the rebel forces on Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. It officially ended on April 9, 1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House. In between, 212,938 people from both sides were killed in action, with total casualties exceeding 625,000 in what was the most bloody war ever fought on this planet... and the most embittered, as is always the case when brothers fight each other to the death, enraged, grieving, broken hearted but determined to have victory, whatever the cost... This war was filled with incident, great deeds of valor, deeds, too, of squalor, treachery, unmitigated cruelty... and chivalry... but of all the deeds in this great struggle, the deeds of just a handful of men determined the outcome. These were the men who fought each other at the Battle of Hampton Roads, Virginia March 8-9, 1862. And I am taking you there today... for you will want to know who won, who lost, and why it happened the way it did. For the incidental music to this article, I have selected Daniel Decatur Emmett's famous tune, "Dixie," also known as "I Wish I Was in Dixie," a song originating in the black face minstrelsy of the 1850s. It is a tune that makes even the least likely ready to jump up and whirl. I have selected it today because, as Abraham Lincoln himself said on April 10, 1865, it's "one of the best tunes I ever heard" ... but also because of its famous line, "Look away, Dixie Land." After the Battle of Hampton Roads, Virginia and all the other Confederate states had nothing to look forward to... and everything to look away from. But it didn't look that way on March 8, 1862... quite the contrary. News of the most alarming portent arrives in Washington, D.C., Sunday, March 9, 1862. Gideon Wells, a New England journalist, found himself urgently summoned to the White House. Come! Come at once! And this Connecticut Yankee, in his unlikely role as Secretary of the Navy, scurried to a meeting where he found Mr. Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, in the greatest possible dismay... and so alarmed himself that he was alarming, too, the President of the Dis-united States of America. It was a scene to brighten every heart in Dixie... and cause shrewd financiers to sell U.S. Treasury bonds short before Wall Street opened Monday, to chaos and defeatism. Mr. Stanton could not keep still, could not hide his profound anxiety and fear. He sat down, only to jump up again and rush to the windows... What was he looking for? A savior for the Union cause... What did he expect to see? The CSS Virginia in all her glory steaming up the Potomac, sinking the Federal cause with effortless grace. It was a scene of destiny, and every man on both sides of the struggle knew that history of the gravest magnitude was happening now! To them! At Hampton Roads! And so depending on their point of view and allegiance they either gave way to unbridled joy... or profound despair and lamentation. No one was neutral on this urgent matter. USS Merrimac into CSS Virginia. The largest naval installation of the Great Republic was at Norfolk in Virginia... and so after the Old Dominion seceded (April 24, 1861) it became a matter of the greatest urgency to both sides to http://www.FutureProsperityZone.com Copyright Barbara Buegeler - 2012 7 of 18

Saving The Great Republic arrange matters there to their greatest advantage. This to the Federal forces meant moving as much as could be moved, destroying the rest. And, to the rebels, to do just the reverse. Thus was the USS Merrimac, unable to be removed in time and against the rebel sentiments of her crew, burnt and sunk... but not effectively. Her new owners quickly discovered both hull and engines were serviceable... and so began her transformation into the CSS Virginia, the vessel which made Secretary Stanton quail with acute fear and humiliating anxiety. Why? Because CSS Virginia, for all that she had just weeks ago been scuttled, was transformed into the mightiest ship of all the navies of all the seas... a ship sheathed in iron, designed to deal death to the picturesque, now ineffectual sailing ships of every navy, but without suffering a single nick at all. Thus did the dead Merrimac come to be the super weapon the Confederacy needed to pulverize the Union and secure their freedom from the meddling, inept Yankees they despised. Confederate triumph March 8, 1862. The world changed this day... as the Virginia, with the merest motion, rammed the hapless USS Cumberland, 121 seamen going down with her... then the USS Congress was put out of action, surrendering... and everyone, from the merest cabin boy, saw the future... and knew that every gallant wooden vessel, yesterday puissant, was now dross. And so, as cat to mouse, Virginia moved to her next sure triumph, USS Minnesota... while every telegrapher sent on the news, the news that so discomfited Secretary Stanton... and every other brave Union heart. Armageddon was here... and it flew a Confederate flag. Until... In August, 1861 Gideon Wells authorized work on a top-secret Union ironclad... and in due course the USS Monitor was born, the most radical naval design ever; the invention of Swedish engineer and inventor John Ericsson. And it was this curious, much mocked vessel that steamed into Hampton Roads March 9, just in time, to reverse what but yesterday had seemed certain, Southern command of the seas and therefore victory. And as Monitor and Virginia battled each other to a draw, each unable to finish its deft opponent, the entire strategic scene changed. All wooden ships, every single one, was now obsolete; thus a new arms race started for command of the seas. USS Monitor had, simply by maneuvering to a draw, stopped the South's "certain" advance and commenced a war of bloody attrition, a war the North could win, and the South had most reason to fear. For without access to the world, the South could only rely on itself... and that would never be enough to ensure independence as every Southern family would, in tragic due course, come to understand only too well. As for both the historic ships of this engagement, neither sailed for long. Virginia was burnt again and sunk when Union forces took back the Norfolk port facilities in May. As for the plucky Monitor, she sank December 31,1862 off North Carolina. The remains of one of her stricken crew, 24-year-old James Fenwick, were just recently brought to the surface for honorable burial. He had been married just a few weeks before Monitor embarked on her final voyage; her history short but epochal. "Old times they are not forgotten; Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land."

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Saving The Great Republic

Abraham Lincoln... captivated by words, created by words, empowered by words, glorified by words. Reflections on his Cooper Union Speech, February 27, 1860.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. 150 years ago, March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln (born 1809), became 16th president of the United States. And if you do not believe in destiny, fate, or kismet, even you will wonder at the undoubted fact that at the time of its maximum peril, the Great Republic should have found the perfect man to guide her affairs and so preside not over her premature dissolution (as so many thought and even wished) but her greatest trial, from which, terrible forge though it was, emerged the greatest of nations. Oh, yes, here was the hand of God, indeed... to the wonder of all... and as we know His ways are mysterious so we shouldn't wonder at this man and his story... a story to be told in the words he loved, the words he mastered, the words he used to effect his great purpose... the words we all have at our disposal... but which only he used with such grace and power... and such resolve... the mark of the consummate master of our language and the great uses to which it can always rise... For this tale, I have selected as the occasional music a tune Abraham Lincoln loved and tapped his toe to, "Jimmy Crack Corn". It's a frolicksome number thought to be a black face minstrel song of the 1840s. Like so much that touches Lincoln, it's not quite what it appears to be.... that is, a black slave's lament over his master's death... it has indeed a subtext of rejoicing over that death and possibly having caused it by deliberate negligence.... "Dat Blue Tail Fly"... It is a feeling every slave must have thought at some time... which every master must have understood and feared... and from this seemingly unsolvable conundrum Lincoln freed both, saving the people, cleansing the Great Republic. Without benefit of formal education... yet with every necessary word to hand. Consider the matter of Illinois, the 21st state, frontier of the Great Republic in 1818 when it was admitted to the Union. It was a land firmly focused on the bright future all were certain was coming... the better to obliterate and make bearable the rigors and unceasing travails of the present. The land was rich... the richness of the people would soon follow. In this land of future promise, inchoate, Lincoln, like all those who delight in words, found his labors lightened and vista magnified by books, and thanks to the good and helpful work of Robert Bray (2007), we may learn just what books he possessed, and so which words he knew, by whom rendered, and how. It is impossible to know in just what order young Lincoln found the books, read the books, and with what degree of joy and enthusiasm, for Lincoln (unlike many who love and live by words) was not a great writer of marginal commentary, in which reader engages in often enraged tete-a-tete with author. Such marginalia are cream to any biographer, but in Lincoln's case were infrequent. In any event, we can surmise that he learned his words first from the great King James version of The Bible, perhaps the most influential and certainly most lyric book in the language. If so, it bestowed on him not only the words but their sonority, cadence and above all, moral certainty, all of which were critical in the development of his mature style and so helped save a great nation from self-destruction. There followed first the odd volume, happily received, then a steady trickle, then the glorious days when he could have as many books, and so as many words, as he wanted; paradise to a man for whom each word, and every book, was a key to greater understanding of the cosmos... and himself... http://www.FutureProsperityZone.com Copyright Barbara Buegeler - 2012 9 of 18

Saving The Great Republic Thus, E.A. Andrews and S. Stoddard "A Grammar of the Latin Language" (1836); Nathan Bailey "Dictionary of English Etymology" (1721); James Barclay "Dictionary" (1774); George Bancroft "History of the United States (1834); Francis Bacon "Essays" (1625); John Bunyan "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1678); Benjamin Franklin "Autobiography" (1818); Edward Gibbon "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (1776)... ... and one great poet after another, for as Lincoln learned, as every word smith must learn, there can be no mastery of words where there is no understanding of poets and their precise, meticulous craft... and so one finds without surprise the works of Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Thomas Gray whose "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (1751) he so loved... with its sad beauty, lines which, once read, seem to have been written for Lincoln himself: "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Awaits alike the inevitable hour, the paths of glory lead but to the grave." It was a thought Lincoln knew only too well, and he had but to touch this poem to think on its powerful, unanswerable, haunting words, including these... "Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne"... but not yet... not yet. And so Lincoln on every day sought out the light enabling him to learn the words, all the words he needed and his work demanded.... thus was he up with day's first light... to finish his work betimes, to snatch some minutes for the words..., then to pass the night and gain some further words by fire light and smokey tallow. Because the words would not be denied... Lincoln was not to be denied. They beckoned. He followed... until he was at last ready to begin, just to begin, his great work... the work that needed all of him... and so every word at his command. Thus was he summoned from Springfield in Illinois to the greatest city of the Great Republic, New York, where its most renowned and anxious citizens, worthy, substantial, concerned, waited with impatience, condescension, worry and, yes, even hope to hear what a prairie lawyer named Lincoln had to say to them about the great issue of their day and how this great blot upon the Great Republic could be resolved... and their great experiment in governance be purified. And so did Abraham Lincoln rise to speak, at Cooper Union, February 27, 1860. The most important speech since Washington's Farewell Address (1796). These days only specialists are knowledgeable about the Cooper Union speech... but this is wrong, for it gave the Union a new voice, a new leader, and a man fiercely dedicated to the preservation and triumph of the Constitution. Without Cooper Union Lincoln would never have been nominated in 1860, so never would have served, and could not have brought his signal talents to bear on saving the Great Republic. And thus the greatest experiment in human history and affairs might well have come to naught, to the impoverishment and despair of our species. But Cooper Union did happen... and with every word the nation knew it had found not merely a good and honest man, but a savior... a man fiercely dedicated to truth... fiercely dedicated to working together with even obdurate men who hated and outraged each other... fiercely determined to find the formula to protect and defend the Union... And so he was fierce in his moderation... fierce in his implacable opposition to anyone threatening the great federal Union... fierce in asking all good citizens to step forward and work for the greater good... And such was the power of his fierce message of what must be done, such was the excellence, clarity and reasonableness of his words, that this audience of the great thrilled and cheered him to the very echo. This single man whose ambition was defined (according to his law partner William H. Herndon) as "a little engine that knew no rest", was now in place for the uttermost struggle, a struggle for http://www.FutureProsperityZone.com Copyright Barbara Buegeler - 2012 10 of 18

Saving The Great Republic common sense, common purpose, common decency and the validation and acknowledgement of all. He was ready... for he had the ideas, the fortitude, the moral certainty... and, above all, the words he needed, the words that saved the Great Republic and remind us still of what is possible when we have a leader who summons the "better angels of our nature."

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Saving The Great Republic

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool reopens. Thoughts on the man, his enduring greatness, and why over 24 million people visit annually and come away refreshed in mind and spirit.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note: I am amongst the most vociferous critics of excessive government spending and waste, but today I am proud of the overdue restoration of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a key part of what makes the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. such a serene and pleasing place, an absolutely essential destination for all citizens; a place which like Mecca, one must visit at least once in one's life, thoughtful, respectful, yearning to be touched and uplifted by its lofty presence, never disappointed or let down. The $34 million spent to restore the reflecting pool, the largest in the capital, is chump-change by Washington standards... but even if the cost was far more than it is, it would be money well spent...for the role of Abraham Lincoln, 16th president, is fundamental to understanding our Great Republic and reminding us just who we are and what we stand for. Start by seeing and feeling what you see. One of the several excellent vantage points for this revered tableau is from the Washington Monument. From this grand obelisk forever pointing up, the only suitable direction for our great endeavors, you see the long, rectangular pool which punctuates the National Mall. No true American, indeed no lover of freedom anywhere, can see this sight without a pang, for to walk the Mall and regard its monuments is to be touched by the greatest people of the nation, their exalted deeds and, always, their searing words which moved multitudes, inspiring the people, opening their minds and shaping our mission for bettering not just our lives but the lives of people worldwide, for that is a crucial and essential aspect of our national work. How it all began. There is a deep irony about the Lincoln Memorial and its jewel, the reflecting pool. If he had lived to complete his second term, it is unlikely Lincoln would have had such a monument. Instead, it might have been something like the nearby Jefferson Memorial, respectful to be sure but without the impact of what exists today. But a Southern sympathizer named John Wilkes Booth assassinated the president, and a nation riven by anger, rage, revenge, and a determination that this man and his mission be remembered forever, impelled the creation of an unparalleled civic temple which could not fail to impress and awe every visitor. Its objective was to glorify Lincoln and the federal union he preserved. The resulting monument must, all agreed, make this abundantly clear, unmistakable, resounding through the years to come. Thus must Lincoln and his great deeds be remembered and raised high. The living Lincoln may not have wanted so much, probably would not... but for the martyred president the grieving, adamant nation would have it so and so it was. Squabbles. But, of course, nothing in Washington then or now can be accomplished without disagreement, argument, posturing and rancor. Lincoln, for all that he was the savior of the Great Republic, was the first Republican president and as such anathema to the gentlemen of the defunct Confederacy and the Northern Democrats who relied on their votes and block support. Monument to Lincoln there might ultimately be, but the road to that end would be as acrimonious and obstructed as the defeated Confederates could make it and as unimpressive as their potent congressional power could http://www.FutureProsperityZone.com Copyright Barbara Buegeler - 2012 12 of 18

Saving The Great Republic influence. Thus, starting in 1867, Congress passed the first of many bills designed to advance matters, this time by creating a commission to erect a Lincoln monument. But it and a plethora of similar legislation were stalled, not just for years but for decades, most notably by House Speaker (and Democrat) Joe Cannon who between 1901 and 1908 made sure every such bill was defeated. Great Lincoln had defeated these rebels and their pernicious notions in life. They would do what they could to defeat him in death. But even here they failed, and at long last in 1910 the necessary legislation was passed, funds voted, design and location approved. Now the great work could be started in earnest... And so a classic Greek temple featuring Yule marble from Colorado arose. It had 36 fluted Doric columns, one for each of the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's death. Above the colonnade, inscribed on the frieze, are the names of the 36 states in the Union when Lincoln died. Every aspect of this graceful monument of simplicity even severity, elegance and restrained grandeur reinforced just one concept: the integrity of our federal union, united, indissoluble, eternal. And there, in solemn majesty, the one man who more than any other made these words a reality. There, as rendered by sculptor Daniel Chester French, Abraham Lincoln, 19 feet tall from head to foot, resides for the numberless ages, a man of power, determination, resolution, contemplation... and most important a man of mercy, empathy, and love as evidenced by the words selected to adorn the walls and make it clear to posterity who he was and what he believed. Of course, the Gettysburg Address, once known by every school child (but not today), was inscribed. And so were the immortal words from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865): "With malice towards none; with charity for all... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." Now it was time for the Reflecting Pool. Along the way, it was decided that this temple as much to the Great Republic as to Lincoln, could be made glorious with a reflecting pool that would dramatically show the treasures of the National Mall while magnifying in its waters the Mall's trees and an expansive sky seemingly without limit. And so the Reflecting Pool of 2,029 feet (over a third of a mile) was added, modeled on the grand canals of Versailles and Fontainebleau, to be dedicated along with the Memorial itself in 1922. The last surviving Lincoln was present that notable day, eldest son Robert Todd, more a Todd than a Lincoln. He never said what he thought about the apotheosis unto civic saint of the rough, ungainly, uncouth father who had so often embarrassed him. Whatever it was went with him to the grave. Glorious again. Over the years, this grand conception went steadily downhill, fetid, fouled with dirt, duck droppings, and trash. It was a monument to nothing more than poor management and oversight and because of its decaying fabric the loss of 500,000 gallons of city water a week, 30 million gallons a year. Now, thanks to public outrage and good old American technology and expertise, these problems are solved, not least the pool's water supply which has been updated to eliminate stagnant water (and those noxious smells) by circulating water from the Tidal Basin. This place of a nation's veneration is now magnificent again, ready for its unending stream of visitors, all needing Lincoln's message of humanity and harmony, more necessary now than ever. Author's program note. For the music to accompany this article, I have selected "Dixie" written by Dan Emmett in 1859. Why this song, the finest reel ever written? Because of Lincoln himself. In 1865, he said "I have always thought that 'Dixie' was one of the best tunes I ever heard." And so it is... You can find it in any search engine. http://www.FutureProsperityZone.com Copyright Barbara Buegeler - 2012 13 of 18

Saving The Great Republic

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Saving The Great Republic

Is there a future for the GOP? Yes, but only if they heed these admonitions and recommendations. Otherwise the party's marginalization will continue, its end certain, ignominious.
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author's program note. Steven Spielberg's important new film "Lincoln" has just been released and not a moment too soon. It's based on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's best-selling book "Team of Rivals:The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." It's about what it takes to move mountains, manage men, get things done and lead, bending but not abandoning every moral principle or strongly held belief. It is about politics, America's blood sport, and how they are played at the very top where angels fear to tread... and rightly so. There's nothing angelic about the participants or the process. It's a very messy... and absolutely crucial... business that ensures our Democracy works. For the music to this piece, I have selected "Dixie", written in 1859 by Daniel Decatur Emmett. Yes, the very anthem of sedition and treason. Why? Because Abe Lincoln thought it a fine tune... and because it reminds us that throwing away a good thing, the greatest reel ever written, makes no sense. Leadership, even in music, means enjoying the good; finessing the bad and remembering what Scarlet O'Hara said: "Tonight I could dance with Abe Lincoln himself".... and sailed through a sea of outrage and disapproval to prove her point and have a thoroughly good time. Loss, bad loss, catastrophic loss. John Boehner (R-OH), Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is now again the highest ranking Republican in the Great Republic. That wasn't the idea, but it is the result after an unenlightening campaign that rained money but where victory eluded them... and not by a narrow margin either. Like most everyone in America Boehner has his ideas about why this happened... and to his credit he didn't hold back when he addressed his chastened, subdued House colleagues by telephone the day after the victory that didn't happen. He made it clear they would have to work with the Democrats they viscerally detest... and in this deduction Boehner at last sounded less like the bombastic ultra-partisan, immutable control freak than he usually does but, perhaps for the first time, actually a tad Lincolnesque. For no American politician ever labored so hard or so successfully to work with (and ultimately control) the people necessary to the fruition of his administration and the nation than Lincoln. He took his political competitors, even his avowed enemies, and plunked them down in his Cabinet... where he could see what they were up to, the better to control them to get his way. It was bold, audacious, unprecedented maybe even fool hardy. And no one knew whether it would succeed or not, not even Abe Lincoln, the most belittled, reviled, and underestimated American politician ever. He asked every candidate who had opposed his nomination at the Republican convention in Chicago to take a portfolio. They couldn't believe their good fortune and assumed their power and control of the new government assured. After all they were men of merit, nationally known, nationally renowned. Seward of New York! Chase of Ohio! Cameron of Pennsylvania! Bates of Missouri! No wonder the weak and untried Lincoln wanted them at hand. He would reign. They would rule. Or so they thought... But Lincoln understood men, understood how to manage them, and bring them along, always http://www.FutureProsperityZone.com Copyright Barbara Buegeler - 2012 15 of 18

Saving The Great Republic But Lincoln understood men, understood how to manage them, and bring them along, always finagling, brokering, deal making to accomplish the needful and always with country humor and good sense. Speaker Boehner ought to ensure that every House Member, Democrat and Republican, gets Goodwin's book and masters it. Don't bet the ranch on Aging White Men. Lincoln had a goal and never lost sight of it: to preserve the federal Union. He made it clear what he would do to achieve and maintain that goal: anything, everything. If it would help, it was on the table. "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." Now have you ever heard Boehner and company say anything like this about the crucial matter of righting America's rickety financial house? You haven't because he hasn't. And until he does, until he says that everything is on the table to achieve the great goal of saving America's finances, the goal will never be achieved and all our lives and endeavors blighted accordingly. This great goal, in short, can not just be accomplished by aging white men, the foundation of the Republican party. Here are the bleak statistics the GOP must wrestle with, statistics which cost them not just the 2012 presidential election but, if not radically improved, will cost them every future presidential election as well: Women: 55% Obama, 44% Romney. Hispanics: 71% Obama, 27% Romney. Young voters under 30: 60% Obama, 36% Romney. Black voters: 95% Obama, 4% Romney. Asian American voters: 80% Obama, 19% Romney. Note: For the record, I must remind you that these numbers are based on various election-date exit polls and other unofficial surveys. Still, the results of these polls are consistent, and therefore are very much to the point. Radical outreach required, starting at once. The staff, offices, and work of the national committees dwindle significantly as soon as the election results are in. This model won't serve the GOP or solve its glaring problem, that it has come to rely upon a group of aging white men who cannot deliver victory in and of themselves. Anyone who can count can see that and the fact that 7,000,000 fewer of these men voted in 2012 than 2008 ought to scare the bejesus out of anyone who wishes the Grand Old Party well. The natural mortality of its favored constituency promises assured cataclysm. What, then, must be done? 1) Building the new GOP and measurably increasing its voter turn-out in each designated category (women, voters under 30, Asian Americans, etc.) must be an explicit objective. A vigorous title such as "Building the NEW GOP!" should be adopted. 2) Respected office holders should be recruited to head each category and its outreach efforts. http://www.FutureProsperityZone.com Copyright Barbara Buegeler - 2012 16 of 18

Saving The Great Republic 3) Adequate budgets should be drawn up and, with the full assistance of the national party organizations, ample funds raised. This is crucial. 4) IT professionals must be hired to advise on the best way to utilize Internet options, including social media. 5) Internet recruitment campaigns along the lines of "And I'm a Mormon" should be implemented, e.g. "And I'm a Republican". 6) Focus groups should be established to ascertain reasons why designated groups would and, importantly would not, vote Republican. Congressional leadership should be involved in this matter. 7) State legislatures and local civic, business and elected leaders should be canvassed for desirable candidates in each category for federal offices. Such information should be shared with congressional campaign committees to allocate funding, etc. 8) A list of open or vulnerable Democratic representatives and senators should be drawn up. Resources should be raised and concentrated on the most likely targets. 9) All information from national headquarters should be "translated" into a form most likely to resonate with designated populations. 10) Study the great coalition and team builders who built the modern Democratic party. Congressman Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. (later U.S. Speaker of the House) whose work in a generation changed Massachusetts from solidly Republican to solidly Democratic. Or Senator George McGovern whose signal work transformed overwhelmingly Republican South Dakota into a state "in play" for the Democrats. And, of course, the greatest Democratic coalition builder, Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose transforming brilliance ensured Democratic victories and Republican irrelevance for a generation. These far-sighted, hardworking strategists set the objective for themselves and the Democrats; then did the necessary to achieve it. Study Lincoln, every fibre, every nuance, every move, every thought. Remember, the Republican Party, the Grand Old Party, is the party of Lincoln. What this means is that you are charged with doing whatever it takes to keep America strong by keeping its people strong. Sadly too often, and glaringly in 2012, you have forgotten your great charge, lost amongst the negativity and nay-saying which has turned the party of Lincoln into a petty shadow of its historical grandeur and significance. Changing this reality into a vision to thrill America is your urgent task now. Restore the primacy of great Lincoln's unsurpassed genius for governance and in the process you will not only save the Grand Old Party and make it grander still; you will save the Great Republic, our nation, our people, our mission. Your moment is here. Seize it... for the good of us all.

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Saving The Great Republic

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About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Your response to this article is requested. What do you think? Let Dr. Lant know by posting your comments below. Republished with author's permission by Barbara Buegeler http://FutureProsperityZone.com.

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