Some past Presidents of the United States speak

Let's start with Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. Here he warns us about the power of banks and what happens when they manipulate currency. Now, on Facebook, one friend said that he was referring to the Federal Reserve, which I don't think existed in Jefferson's time and which I admit to knowing very little about, but whatever the case, it seems like banks have been part of the problem that we've been having with this whole financial crash in the past several years. I will admit to knowing very little about the world of high finance so I can't really speak authoritatively on it, but I do know that part of the problem here was that banks were dealing in some very risky and exotic financial products that had tons of fine print that consumers didn't bother to read before they signed on the dotted line. There was a housing boom going on as I watched every single farmer in my area sell their land to rapacious developers who threw up chipboard McMansions nearly overnight which were then snapped up by people who could not afford them, leading to massive foreclosures. Had there been tighter regulations and oversight, this might not have happened and we'd certainly not be facing this deep, deep crisis in which we find ourselves. The problem was that the mortgages were bundled and sold off to investors around the world, so when the big crash happened, it didn't just affect the US, it caused economies all over the world to spiral out of control and crash as well. The crash was so profound, so deep that leading economists are saying that it will take at least ten years before we see any real recovery, no matter who occupies the White House or which party they are. Great, so there goes any hopes of retirement. I was listening to the radio today and NPR has been having a series on retirement on both Morning Edition and All Things Considered and it seems that the adage that you must be able to save at least a million dollars is true, but c'mon, who realistically can save that much, especially in this economy? I can't save a dime since I haven't had a raise or even cost-of-living in six years, so with prices going up each year, including my health insurance, my pay has actually decreased in the past decade instead of increased. It's getting to where the only option I have left is to take on a second job, something I don't necessarily want to do, but it may become something I can no longer avoid doing. You just can't get by anymore on one income. You need two incomes to survive in these times, and my one paltry income of $28,000 a year isn't making it anymore. Thanks, Wall Street, for screwing me seven ways from Sunday and making it impossible for someone like me to survive only one job. Now, Abraham Lincoln warns against corporate corruption and the accumulation of wealth in a few hands, and this was nearly 150 years ago! What he feared has sadly come to pass. Four hundred people in this country now hold more wealth than half of our nation's people combined. That kind of wealth disparity, if it is not dealt with, will surely destroy our nation as Lincoln feared. Rampant greed combined with the fraying of the social safety net has left our country deeply vulnerable. Our country's income inequality is now worse than many third world countries, and that is a crying shame. We have returned to the Gilded Age, the age of Robber Barons that President Theodore Roosevelt fought so hard against. Now, he, like Lincoln, was a Republican, but a progressive Republican. People like Roosevelt and Lincoln would be summarily drummed out of today's GOP for not toeing the mean spirited party line of "screw you, I got mine". I'm sure these men are rolling in their graves at what an awful nation we have become, how Scrooge like we are when people can applaud at the GOP debates when Governor Rick Perry is asked a question about his state having the most executions of prisoners, or that the audience applauds when a candidate says that a comatose 30 year old patient without health insurance should die instead of being treated. What kind of country have we become when people are so heartless that they act like that? The generation that makes up the bulk of those in power in the GOP are the "Me" generation of the Reagan era and even HE would be drummed out of their party for being too liberal...go figure. Today's GOP is so radical, so hard right that it's practically unrecognizable, unfortunately.
Now, General Dwight Eisenhower saw firsthand the horrors of war since he led troops in some of the deadliest actions that Americans faced during World War II. He knew first hand that he was often sending his own men to their deaths in various actions and I have heard from military men that this is one of the most difficult parts of command, that you sometimes have to order men into battle situations where you know that you're going to suffer high casualty rates. It's all the price of command and General Eisenhower knew it all too well, but America was victorious in the Second World War and partly due to his efforts and those of his men that it was so. General Eisenhower is another one who would probably be drummed out of today's GOP for being considered "too liberal" by today's standards. Here he warns us that too much money spent on the machinery of war robs our nation of money to care for those less fortunate and robs us of everything from the hopes of our children to the efforts of our scientists. He also, in his farewell speech as he left the Presidency, warned of the build up of the military industrial complex: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." He also warned of short term thinking over long term gain: "Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. " Very prescient. If he were alive today he'd no doubt be scolding the current Republican Party for its short sightedness in wanting plunder for today at the cost of our future. These Presidents knew that there was the potential for the kind of radicalism and short sightedness that we are now experiencing in the modern day Republican Party. I hope that someday, someone will wake up and listen to these words of warning from past Presidents and make the appropriate adjustments to party doctrine, but I'm not going to hold my breath and hope that it happens. I'm afraid that the modern day GOP has gone over a cliff and is beyond salvage. I wonder what history will have to say about that.