By ©2024 Sarah Becker

America, it seems, is at a crossroad. We are several months into the 2024 presidential campaign. Messaging is mostly garble.  And war continues: in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

“If we resort for a criterion, to the different principles on which different forms of government are established, we may define a republic to be…a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from…the people; and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited period, or during good behavior,” James Madison wrote in 1788.

As of April 26, 2024, 52 members of Congress—eight members of the U.S. Senate and 44 members of the U.S. House of Representatives—have announced they will not seek re-election. Most say, they’ve had it!

“For me, the essential ingredients of effective public service are integrity and civility,” retiring Senator Ben Cardin [D-MD] said in May 2023. “I have always tried to listen to people…and then work with them to find a solution…I was taught that it’s okay to compromise to get things done. Inspire trust. That’s civility and it has been central to all I have done.”

On February 4, 2024, Senator Kyrsten Sinema [I-AZ] retiring, was joined by Senators James Lankford [R-OK] and Chris Murphy [D-CT] to announce the release of their bipartisan border security package. “A major bipartisan border deal: one that was intended to be paired with a foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel.”

“The border security bill will put a huge number of new enforcement tools in the hands of a future administration and push the current Administration to finally stop the illegal flow of immigrants,” Lankford explained. Tools, Sinema said, “To end catch and release, increase relief to border communities, disrupt the flow of fentanyl and more.”

A day later, at former President Donald Trump’s request [R-NY/FL, 2017-2021], Speaker of the House Mike Johnson [R-LA] killed the deal rather than celebrate a bipartisan victory prior to November’s election. Then—on April 20, 2024—Speaker Johnson reminded himself of right. He, in part, reversed course.

Sixty-one percent of Americans question the ability of Democrats and Republicans to work together [Pew], especially as it relates to science [Gallup]. Forty-nine percent of voters identify as Democrat or leaning Democrat while 48% identify as Republican or leaning Republican [Pew].

“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves,” Republican presidential nominee Abraham Lincoln said in 1860. “Let us have faith that right makes might….”

The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project ranks Abraham Lincoln No. 1 on its list of best U.S. Presidents. One of Lincoln’s [IL, 1861-1865] greatest preoccupations as a political thinker: the issue of self-governance.

The remaining top ten Presidents, in descending order: Franklin Delano Roosevelt [D-NY, 1933-1945], George Washington [VA, 1789-1797], Teddy Roosevelt [R-NY, 1901-1909], Thomas Jefferson [DR-VA, 1801-1809], Harry Truman [D-MO, 1945-1953], Barack Obama [D-IL, 2009-2017], and Dwight Eisenhower [R-NY, 1953-1961].

The Presidential Greatness Project’s lowest listing: Donald Trump. “One thing distancing him…is his inability to unite those with opposing viewpoints,” the Project related.

Would it surprise you if—in this sea of political debris—I told you that two of the Project’s top ten Presidents were also Nobel Laureates? The four Peace Prize winners are: Theodore Roosevelt [1906], Woodrow Wilson [1920], Jimmy Carter [2002], and Barack Obama [2009]. Vice-President Al Gore also [2007].

Alfred Nobel was a “man of many disciplines”—including physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology; literature and peace. When he died in 1896 Nobel left his fortune to “those who have been outstanding figures in these fields.”

According to Nobel’s will the Peace Prize is to be chosen by a Committee of five selected by the Norwegian national Parliament. The Prize awarded annually:  to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

On June 8, 1905, President and former U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt invited Russia and Japan to New Hampshire to discuss their differences. The Russo-Japanese War had been ongoing since February 1904. It was time, Teddy thought, “for the belligerents to negotiate.” Three months later a peace agreement was signed and Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

President Woodrow Wilson accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in 1920. WWI [1914-1920] was coming to a close; the League of Nations Draft was completed on February 14, 1919, and the multi-nation Treaty of Versailles was soon signed. Wilson’s League of Nations, the forerunner to today’s United Nations was an outgrowth of his 1918 “Fourteen Points program for peace.”

Former President Jimmy Carter [D-GA, 1977-1981] was given his Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He was honored for his efforts “in finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts, advancing democracy and human rights, and promoting economic and social development.” For more information, visit oldtowncrier.com, A Bit of History, February 2024.

President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 2009, his first year in office: For his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Multilateral diplomacy had again found its place.

“I think I’m gonna get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things—if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t,” President Trump told the U.N. General Assembly in 2019. “Trump offered no real evidence that the Nobel committee…was actually ‘rigged,’” The Washington Post reported.

Trump-45 was one of 329 nominees for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize: For his administration’s 2020 Abraham Accords, the Declaration that normalized relations between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE. “For his merit, I think Donald Trump has done more trying to create peace…than most other peace prize nominees,” Norwegian politician Christian Tybring-Gjedda then said. “But the way he behaves sometimes….”

When Abraham Lincoln spoke of “A House Divided” he borrowed from the Bible. Matthew 12:25: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”

America’s Civil War began in 1861—when the Confederates bombarded the Union’s Fort Sumter. “Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish,” Lincoln mulled in 1865. “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.”

War is “any situation in which there is strong competition between opposing sides.” Be it a period of armed conflict or a prolonged war of words. Today’s Congressional wars include: immigration and border security, inflation and the economy, social security and taxes; women’s rights, gun control, and climate change.

“The dysfunction in [the 118^th] Congress is serious and we are seeing a breakdown of civility,” retiring U.S. Representative Ken Buck [R-CO] ranted in March 2024. “We need to find better ways to bring America together.”

“We can succeed only by concert,” President Lincoln messaged Congress in 1862. “It is not ‘Can any of us imagine better? but Can we all do better?”

Assassinated on April 14, 1865, Lincoln’s funeral railcar was built in Union-occupied Alexandria.

About the Author: Sarah Becker started writing for The Economist while a graduate student in England. Similar publications followed. She joined the Crier in 1996 while serving on the Alexandria Convention and Visitors Association Board. Her interest in antiquities began as a World Bank hire, with Indonesia’s need to generate hard currency. Balinese history, i.e. tourism provided the means. The New York Times describes Becker’s book, Off Your Duffs & Up the Assets, as “a blueprint for thousands of nonprofit managers.” A former museum director, SLAM’s saving grace Sarah received Alexandria’s Salute to Women Award in 2007. Email: abitofhistory53@gmail.com