America is not our politics

The America we live in today was profoundly shaped by two 19th century assassinations that stole great American leaders, altered the trajectory of history, and weighed down civil rights progress for more than 100 years.

The first man was Abraham Lincoln, who was succeeded by Andrew Johnson. He was the second worst president in US history before Trump shuffled the lower decks, promoting him to third.

The second man is much lesser known, and sadly, barely remembered today. He was the 20th president of the United States, and was killed by an assassin after only 200 days in office. He would have been a great president. His loss reverberates through this very hour because, with it, the country saw the chance for racial justice extinguished in the South until the mid-1960s. James Garfield was a reluctant candidate and president. The nine-term Ohio congressman was known for his probity, rectitude and valor, as well as his commitment toward duty.

He gave a speech 143 years ago this past week, on August 6, 1880. It ranks amongst the greatest in American history. It was the only public speech from the presidential campaign in an era during which the major candidates didn’t directly campaign.

The first thing that jumps out when reading it are the references he makes to “100 years ago” when speaking of Alexander Hamilton. America’s founders were not long gone in 1880.

When reading the speech, consider that the great 20th century American General and Statesman George Marshall was born in the year it was given. So was Douglas MacArthur. The First and Second World Wars were yet to come. The first automobile had not yet driven. The first radio signal was science fiction, and not a single lightbulb had ever yet been turned on when this speech was given. More time has passed between today and 1880 than had between the distance of that day and the American Revolution, which Garfield recalls. What could possibly be relevant from such distant words from a dead president?  

It turns out there is much. The truth is eternal. This is what he talked about at a moment when the darkness of subjugation was falling over the American South, after the collapse of reconstruction, following the corruption of the election of 1876.

Before reading what Garfield wrote think about its timelessness. Let yourself feel connected to him and them. After all, we are connected to each other as Americans. This applies through the generations because Garfield is still with us. He will always be, just as we will be, and our descendants will be for their great-grandchildren. The generations of Americans yet born are similarly connected all the way back to the beginning. Together, we are the authors of America’s story and destiny. These are troubled days where idiocy, malice, cowardice and appeasement have become the rocket fuel for political advancement. It has created a fractured culture where American politics has become a type of malignant leper colony that exports malice and chaos.

Think about it. Donald Trump couldn’t sell out a football stadium, let alone 60 or more. Taylor Swift can. Last night, I joined my youngest daughter and 85,000 screaming fans enveloped in good spirit and happiness. I watched in wonder as thousands of young women traded friendship bracelets and complimented each others’ outfits.

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour

Meanwhile, the GOP frontrunner, accused criminal Donald Trump called his chief rival in New Hampshire a “fat pig,” while continuing to lash out at his country and its institutions like a cornered wild rat. What would American culture be like if the culture of a Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, or Beyonce show were covered around the clock and jammed down the throats of the American people like the MAGA pestilence is? It stands to reason we would be a happier and better people. Sadly, it hasn’t worked out that way. MAGA it is.

When you read Garfield’s speech remember that he absolutely would not have been surprised by a Florida governor like Ron DeSantis trying to impose a school curriculum that teaches the happy times of slavery times. Delusion, betrayal, and faithlessness did not begin with Donald Trump, and he won’t be the last treacherous American politician. There will never be a moment at which America does not face its greatest foe, which has always been itself. Lincoln was absolutely correct when he observed that no foreign enemy could ever conquer America and that if our nation were to perish it would be by suicide. Shouldn’t we reject the call by the worst amongst us to commit national suicide and snuff out the American experiment? Shouldn’t we be enraged at the state of our civil affairs and the contempt so many American leaders have for the American people? Last week, I saw the musical genius Trombone Shorty and Ziggy Marley, who wished the crowd well. Ziggy said that he hoped everyone would find peace, joy, love and prosperity. Imagine.

Try and imagine Senator Ted Cruz wishing such things for Texans, or Ron DeSantis for all Floridians — never mind for every American. In fact, they are clear about their ill wishes. They are absolutely specific and direct around whom they wish to punish. Like Trump, they stand on a platform that would have been absolutely familiar to Garfield. They want to break the Union. 

Garfield defended the Union with his life, and so did the men he was talking to. They were the “Boys in Blue” for whom the speech came to be known. The event took place in New York City, and the crowd of 50,000 filled with veterans was raucous. 

Comrades of the "Boys in Blue" and fellow-citizens of New York: I cannot look upon this great assemblage and these old veterans that have marched past us, and listen to the words of welcome from our comrade who has just spoken, without remembering how great a thing it is to live in this Union and be a part of it. This is New York; and yonder, toward the Battery, more than a hundred years ago, a young student of Columbia College was arguing the ideas of the American Revolution and American union against the un-American loyalty to monarchy, of his college president and professors. By and by, he went into the patriot army, was placed on the staff of Washington, to fight the battles of his country, and while in camp, before he was twenty-one years old, upon a drum-head he wrote a letter which contained every germ of the Constitution of the United States. That student, soldier, statesman, and great leader of thought, Alexander Hamilton, of New York, made this Republic glorious by his thinking, and left his lasting impress upon this the foremost State of the Union. And here on this island, the scene of his early triumphs, we gather tonight, soldiers of the new war, representing the same ideas of union, having added strength and glory to the monument reared by the heroes of the Revolution.

Again, it is remarkable to absorb these words and realize the “current war” is the US Civil War. His comparisons are to the founding generation, and assert that a new generation has sustained the republic and made themselves worthy of the greatest achievement of that time with their heroism in their time. The war though was not fought over land or money. It was a war fought over freedom; During its course the modern United States was forged. This is the truth of that war and of America.  It is a truth that deeply matters in this moment of national crisis during which the US Constitution has been assailed anew by its domestic enemies and faithless protectors. 

Gentlemen, ideas outlive men; ideas outlive all earthly things. You who fought in the war for the Union fought for immortal ideas, and by their might you crowned the war with victory. But victory was worth nothing except for the truths that were under it, in it, and above it. We meet tonight as comrades to stand guard around the sacred truths for which we fought. And while we have life to meet and grasp the hand of a comrade, we will stand by the great truths of the war. Many convictions have sunk so deep into our hearts that we can never forget them. Think of the elevating spirit of the war itself. We gathered the boys from all our farms and shops and stores and schools and homes, from all over the Republic. They went forth unknown to fame, but returned enrolled on the roster of immortal heroes. They went in the spirit of the soldiers of Henry at Agincourt, of whom he said:

"For he today that sheds his blood with me,
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition."

And it did gentle the condition and elevate the heart of every worthy soldier who fought for the Union, and he shall be our brother forevermore. Another thing we will remember: we will remember our allies who fought with us. Soon after the great struggle began, we looked behind the army of white rebels, and saw 4,000,000 of black people condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies; and we found that the hearts of these 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of Liberty, and that they were all our friends. We have seen the white men betray the flag and fight to kill the Union; but in all that long, dreary war we never saw a traitor in a black skin. Our comrades escaping from the starvation of prison, fleeing to our lines by the light of the North star, never feared to enter the black man's cabin and ask for bread. In all that period of suffering and danger, no Union soldier was ever betrayed by a black man or woman. And now that we have made them free, so long as we live we will stand by these black allies. We will stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our Constitution, shall shine with equal ray upon every man, black or white, throughout the Union. Fellow-citizens, fellow-soldiers, in this there is the beneficence of eternal justice, and by it we will stand forever. A poet has said that in individual life we rise, "On stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things," and the Republic rises on the glorious achievements of its dead and living heroes to a higher and nobler national life. We must stand guard over our past as soldiers, and over our country as the common heritage of all.

On stepping stones of our dead selves to higher things and the Republic rises on the glorious achievements of its dead and living heroes to a higher and nobler national life.

Those are beautiful and deep words. The man who spoke them would soon be president — and dead soon after that. America will never stop producing heroes because the story will never be finished so long as the republic endures. 

There is no question that music unites and lifts people. It brings them together. What sustains everything is freedom. It is the magic elixir of happiness and joy. It is essential to the American way of life. It is under direct threat by people who have sworn an oath to defend it. It’s a travesty. 

America is not our politics. The country is so much more than that. There is evidence of that all around America this summer. Sometimes it is important to remember from where American power flows. It flows from our people and culture. It flows from freedom. Let’s defend that. No one should ever want the singing to stop in this country.