Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?

The old joke has an answer: “Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?”

Nobody.

Grant is not buried.

I walked several miles today on a pilgrimage to a personal hero: US Grant. He is thought of as a “failed President” because back in the day, hating the KKK and jailing lots of members was viewed as “extreme.” Grant was imperfect, he was no Lincoln, but Grant hated the Klan and loved the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln. He fought the Klan and if he failed, he still jailed many of the members of the largest terror group ever to operate on American soil.

He had ended the treason of the Confederacy on the battlefield and did more than most to fight the racism of the defeated foe.

If he failed, and he did, he failed because men in his time put party over principle. They wanted “unity” and “peace” over justice and righteousness.

Grant sided with the freedman, fundamentally, and history sided with the segregationists.

Thank God, I have been and always will be, a member of the party of Lincoln.

We hear “KKK” and we think: evil terrorists.

We see a “rebel flag” and we think: the treason of Judas.

We feel sick at the sight of slavery and we think: not my party.

I stood at the tomb of US and Julia Grant: the final resting place of the man who tried to make Lincoln’s vision real. Johnson was a Democrat who was sympathetic to slavers and traitors. Grant was the man who used an army to break the bad guys. Lincoln died to make men free and Grant lived, too long he lived, to make men happy.

Grant wanted liberty and justice for all, but for the last one hundred years, sly racists have tried to minimize pain, shuffle off problems, and pretend slavery is a long time ago. They were already saying this in 1876 and they are shouting it today.

Fortunately, the party of Grant stands in the way of racism. When a Republican is asked about the Klan, he thinks: “No. Evil. Bad. Wrong.”

He does not stall. We are the party that freed the slaves and tried to break the Klan.

Nobody can be Republican and not throw up in their mouths at the very thought of the KKK>

I stood today at Grant’s tomb. It was beautiful, peaceful, and calm. This is good .  . but for the fact that almost nobody was there. US Grant fought to save the Union, helped free the slaves, busted the Klan, yet there was nobody there. Christians take the long view and know that as Grant was in favor of change . . . He was right.

As the sun set through the alabaster windows, I was content. I knew I could not be Lincoln, but I could reject any man who was less than Lincoln in the world of ideas or less than Grant. Thank God US Grant represents the basement of the GOP and not the ceiling. Mr. Lincoln is in the heavens, Grant is making things go, and no GOP candidate has anything, or could have anything, but contempt for the Klan.

The good news is that we will be true to our Party unless, as Reagan put it: “We do not leave the party, but the party leaves us.” My GOP knows the KKK is bad without thought . . . we beat them once and we will fight them until Hell freezes over and then give them another round on the ice. We hate treason, including the treason that denies basic First Amendment Freedom to the press.

I said a prayer at Grant’s tomb not for the sake of magic, God will do as He will, but because I am in solidarity with Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield against the Klan and that loyalty trumps any other except the Savior.