Lincoln railed against the Mexican war. He thought it was purely a politically motivated action that had nothing to do with right and wrong. We would however have a much different set of borders today had the war not happened. The Republican Party had nothing to do with the Mexican war. In fact they were yet to have any power when it happened. Populism is a liberal/fascist tactic of the left (and now McCain) atypical of the Republican Party.

And I used to like Tom Jefferson. Seems he is a bit nutty in his old age.

A number of states have perverted the primary process so that in those states the democrats can decide who will be representing both the dems and the republicans. The result is that we may have in this election two democrats (McCain and the dems nominee) running for President. This will be a disaster. McCain will be destroyed easily by the press and their candidate will be elected. Not that there is much difference between McCain and any other democrat but we have stood by and allowed the libs to steal our right to be heard in a presidential election. It should be the party that decides what the primary rules are and not the politicians in power in any one state. If the republicans had been the ones pulling this on the dems we would never had heard the end of it in the press. Then again the republicans would not have conceived of it because they lack the larceny of the left.

The truth in the statement comes from the fact that tyrants are much easier to oppose than do-gooders. We need a society where people can do what they will while the leaders only do what they must.

Too bad the greater ones are not in power.

Earth day celebrations in New York looked more like a litter fest. I never saw such a bunch of spoiled self centered people. Hundreds of trash cans and all of them empty. The ground was solid trash.

What a jackass. His "people" that are oppressed by the system have it better under our system than they would under any other. I suppose he thinks that all should just magically appear on your plate just because you deserve it. Nothing but a spoiled blue blood rich kid.

The reason a select few got together and formed our constitution rather than put it up for the public to decide by a majority is simple. It would have been a disaster assuming it ever got finished at all. Same principal applies to our "democracy" put every thing up for the entire public to vote on and nothing worth while ever would get done. Our present "leaders" are getting more and more of followers of polls. This is defeating the safeguards that the originators of our republic created. It is why we are seeing so much more bad legislation and control of public policy by the press.

Dougmcr8, Springfield, VA is right about wealth. Lincoln lived in a time before there were many controls over corporations. Monopolies were not illegal for instance.

Hooray Paul. You are dead on.

Absolutely brilliant. Man should be president. If you think that you can twist what he said to mean that government should force a religion or a religious code on its people you are a fool. He clearly states the government is not to dictate. I know you thumb down people think you are in support of not dictating moral code but if you ever wake up and take a good look at your belief system you will find that you are the dictators.

God was not concerned with the government. What drivel trinity.

Separate morals from the legal code and you have nothing but a vehicle for imposing the unrestrained will of tyrants. Note he infers that morals are an imposition.

Adolph Hitler was intent on stamping out evil. Probably every tyrant believes he is stamping out evil. I fail however to remember the Iraqi people ever being accused by any one of perpetuating evil before. That one has me scratching my head.

Wake up. The Republican Party is being taken over by liberals. John Kennedy would be considered a right wing nut job today by our press. We need to go back to Barry Goldwater. He was in no way then or now a liberal. The Republican Party is heading for disaster because of it's flirting with the idea of a leftward slide. I have never read so much ignorance on this subject before. Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan are the Ideals of traditional Republicans. Stray from that and the party will soon be no more.

All legislation is to define what is moral or immoral concerning the question at hand. If it were not there would be no point to it. That is not to say all legislation is good when the moral compass of so many is askew. I know that those that say "You can not legislate morality" mean that morality can not be forced on someone, but legislating morality is all that legislators do.

Wealthy people can be moral or immoral. The wealth just seems to make their morality more noticeable to the rest of us. Wealth has nothing to do with morality. E Archer, NYC has put it very well. As to the quote - if some one truly "serves" with his head his conscience would already be part of it.

Tatiana and Mike - right on.

No it is political correctness from the fascist left, not the wimpy Patriot Act. He is clearly talking about the thought police. If he were talking about things like the patriot act he would be referring to giving up freedoms in exchange for security. It is one thing to loose some liberty because of the need to defend against the acts of tyrants, but something else to just give them up to avoid a stern word or look from someone that seeks to control you.

Without morality ruling supreme there will be no freedom. I think that the quote is a bit lacking without a whole lot of 'splainin' from the author.

Man knows his stuff.

Key word in the quote is "best".

MORALITY HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION. ALL MORALITY HAS COME FROM RELIGION. WITH OUT RELIGION MORALITY BECOMES PERSONAL CHOICE AND THEREFORE NO LONGER EXISTS.

This was obviously taken out of context. The statement makes good sense when I read it thinking that doing what one must has to do with doing what is moral, right and just. Having a good moral belief is worthless if your actions are modified when difficulty arises.

Sounds like him.