MARY ELIZABETH LEASE. who is this person exactly and what she meant by nation of consistency?

Answer 1

Mary Elizabeth Lease was an activist around the turn of the century. She is most famous for the slogan "Raise less corn and Raise more hell."
Based on her politics, I would say nation of consistency refers to the fact that the United States preaches one set of values and practices an entirely different set of values. This is nothing new -- it has been going on for the whole history of the US.
In her day, we were taking about spreading democracy, yet crushing democracy movements in the Phillipines.

Here are some articles on her:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Elizabeth_Lease
http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/lease.html
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/LL/fle97.html
http://womenslegalhistory.stanford.edu/papers/lease.pdf