Beware the 'Intriguing' Man

BY PAUL E. SCATES

re•pub•li•canism - (noun) the belief that the supreme power of a country should be vested in an electorate - Encarta® World English Dictionary

Noah Webster is one of the most influential of the Founding Fathers, although you may only know him as the writer of a dictionary. In 1783, Noah wrote his own textbook, A Grammatical
Institute of the English Language, and it became the most popular American book of its time. For over 100 years this "Blue-backed Speller" taught children how to read, spell, and pronounce words.

In 1806, at age 43, Webster published A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, the first truly American dictionary. He wrote it because Americans in different
 parts of the country spelled, pronounced and used words differently, and he thought that all Americans should speak
the same way. Immediately thereafter he went to work on his magnum opus, An American Dictionary of the English Language, for which he learned 26 languages, including Anglo-Saxon and Sanskrit, in order to research the origins of his own country's tongue. It was published 22 years later, when he was 70 years old, and embodied a new standard of lexicography. It was a dictionary with 70,000 entries that was felt by many to have surpassed Samuel Johnson's 1755 British masterpiece not only in scope but in authority as well.

This wise man also had plenty to say about politics. Here, written in 1833, is one Truth he expressed that has stood the test of time –

“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, “just men who will rule in the fear of God.” The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws. Intriguing men can never safely be trusted.” - Noah Webster, “Advice to the Young,” Number 49, Chap. XIX, History of the United States, 1833

The “man on a white horse” has long been a staple of literature and movies: the mysterious stranger who comes out of nowhere to rescue the maiden, the town…and now, our nation. These works of fiction align with world history in revealing the danger of trusting a smooth-talking, self-assured stranger to take over the responsibilities that must rightly rest with the people. Barack Obama is but the latest and most rhetorically gifted of these “intriguing” men.

But he is not the first U.S. Senator to play this role. After serving only two years in the Senate, the articulate, exciting and youthful John F. Kennedy overwhelmed this country with charm and charisma (not to mention some creative vote-counting in Cook County, Illinois) to win the presidency from the “old” and un-exciting Richard Nixon.

Kennedy’s legacy? Vietnam, the Great Society (a basically socialist agenda pushed through by Kennedy successor LBJ on the strength of sympathy for the fallen president), the brink of nuclear war and, for all its good intentions, the simmering racial animosity between black and white Americans that is the bastard stepchild of the Civil Rights movement. (That you can’t oppose Obama’s candidacy without being tarred with the charge of “racism” simply reinforces this point.) All of these began with the greatest of intentions, the most noble-sounding rhetoric and the promise of “hope and change” for the future.

Despite the “Camelot” images fostered by the fawning news media, many historians today rate Kennedy as the worst president of the 20th century.

Yet today we’re once again presented with a youthful, glib and exciting candidate who offers only a vague “hope,” an un-defined “change” and the ability to speak well and charm his listeners. An “intriguing” man, to be sure…but one with whom you’re willing to trust the future of our nation in this age of terrorism? I urge you, my fellow American…think before you vote.

Formerly a liberal and an atheist, Paul E. Scates served as a Marine in Vietnam and is a lifelong student of American history, politics and culture. A former contributor to national website TooGoodReports.com, he writes his staunchly independent Conservative and informed Christian commentary for his fellow ordinary, working Americans, the “we, the people” who are ultimately responsible for preserving our Constitutional liberties.