. . . I do not regard the first man in space as a sign of the weakening of the free world, but I do regard the total mobilization of man and things for the service of the Communist bloc over the last years as a source of great danger to us. And I would say we are going to have to live with that danger and hazard through much of the rest of this century.
My feeling is that we are more durable in the long run. These dictatorships enjoy many short-range advantages, as we saw in the thirties. But in the long run I think our system suits the qualities and aspirations of people that desire to be their own masters. I think our system suits better. Our job is to maintain our strength until our great qualities can be brought more effectively to bear. But during the meantime, it is going to require a united effort.
-John F. Kennedy (White House News Conference, April 12, 1961)
Lex adds:
Cool.
Moral clarity on foreign threats from a liberal hero. Where is the equivalent voice now?
Nowhere in the Donk Party, that’s for sure.
I’ve got Yuri’s picture up on my wall… it’s on the schedule poster I stole from the World Space Party on April 12, 2006.
… and yes, we did in fact beat them out quite solidly in the long run. The same will be true for the Islamofascists. We just need to hang in there for a while.
As for the Dems’ equivalent voice… they have guys like Lieberman. It just so happens that the nutroots hates his guts because of it. Their party base is made up of traitors, cowards, and morons, and most of the party leadership panders to them just enough to keep them from jumping ship.
I’m working on a post on the subject (only 10% of what I start ever makes it onto the site), but there is an infuriating piece in Dissent magazine (via A&LD) that seems to indicate that liberals were the lonely voices raised in protest against the Soviet Union. Even Joschka Fischer rates a nod. The past is amazingly malleable.
A lot of people do not know who said this:
” … the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe–the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans–born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage–and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge–and more.”
Would any Democrat say anything like that today? Sounds like something that President Bush would say — all that God stuff.
Check it out