Stop all of this nonsense about the GOP being the “Party of Lincoln.” The Neo Conservative Party - formally known as the Republican Party – is no more the “Party of Lincoln” than PETA is the party of meat-eaters.
Let’s just set aside the fact that Lincoln ran on the National Union ticket with a Democrat VP candidate in 1864, his last campaign, because a large faction of Republicans deemed him incompetent to run for a second term of office on the GOP ticket and deserted him – this after he freed the slaves as the Neo-consters love to remind us.
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”
Abraham Lincoln believed very strongly in the unique democratic process by which we Americans choose our representatives in government. He believed in the system. He believed in the Trias politica – the separation of power between the three branches of our government. He believed in the voters and respected their decisions.
The ‘people’ spoke at the polls in 2006 and 2008 and their voices were resoundingly clear. Not only did they entrust the Executive Branch to a Democrat, they also handed the House of Representatives and the Senate to the Democratic Party – and with that the ability to shape the Judicial Branch. This is a hardly unprecedented, even common occurrence despite the hysterical cries of Fascism from the fringe. In fact, it happened less than 20 years ago.
On Election Day 2002, the Congress joined the White House under the control of the Republican Party, which gave them the power to select Supreme Court Justices who shared their political philosophies. It also happened in 1861 the year after Lincoln was first elected President. During that election the Republican Party took control of both houses in Congress riding Lincoln’s coattails. The following year Lincoln nominated 3 like-minded Republican jurists to the bench.
It’s happened more times than I care to count, and will continue to happen so long as this nation exists.
The radical right would have you believe that President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress total seized control of the government through some midnight coup d’etat rather than being elected a ‘government by the people.’ They fail to acknowledge that in not one, but two elections, the Neo Conservative message was rejected ‘by the people.’ The unhinged refuse to even acknowledge the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency, instead of accepting defeat, like they urged Democrats to do in 2000. John McCain disingenuously promised to embracie the notion of the ‘loyal minority.' That never materialized. Instead theres been a torrent of hate speech rife with racial undertones.....quite un-Lincolnian.
Lincoln also believed in political debate and the concept of the town hall as a forum for public discourse on the issues. The phony Neo-con funded ‘grassroots’ demonstrations at several recent town-halls are far more an affront to the legacy of Lincoln, than they are any true expressions of free speech and political discourse. And for that matter, in order for something to be free speech – and thus protected, it must be actual speech. Shrieking and whistling is not speech.
Passionate political debate is one of the backbones of this experiment in Democracy of ours. And the participants showing fire and passion at some of the town hall meetings on this tough issue are absolutely in their right to demand answers from their representatives, provided it is answers that they actually want. If they only wish to disrupt the process, to use the stage to sabotage any real debate without advancing an opposing argument, then they are disrespecting the name Lincoln by implying that he is connected with the Neo Conservative ideology. The manufactured mobs at these meetings aim only to subvert the democratic process through shock and sensational theatrics. It stands to reason that Lincoln would want no part of a party that would seek to create chaos of the democratic process that he devote his life to.
More importantly, Lincoln believed that the United States of America was a Federal Republic and should therefore have a strong centralized government, another thing that the Neo Conservative Party vehemently opposes.
How could one claim to be in the ‘Party of Lincoln’ and with the very same breath speak of State secession? Lincoln was a tireless fighter for INCREASING the power of the Federal Government. He denounced secessionist talk and held States Rights ideologues with contempt.
In a speech to Congress in 1861, Lincoln said the following;
"Having never been States, either in substance, or in name, outside of the Union, whence this magical omnipotence of 'State rights,' asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy the Union itself?.....The Union, and not themselves separately, procured their independence, and their liberty. By conquest, or purchase, the Union gave each of them, whatever of independence, and liberty, it has. The Union is older than any of the States; and, in fact, it created them as States….Much is said about the "sovereignty" of the States, but the word even is not in the national Constitution, nor, as is believed, in any of the State constitutions.”
Can you imagine the thrashing Lincoln would have given Rick Perry (yes, even Texas) and the other Neo-cons of the State Sovereignty movement? Here’s a taste;
“A part of the present national debt was contracted to pay the old debts of Texas. Is it just that she shall leave and pay no part of this herself? Again, if one State may secede, so may another; and when all shall have seceded none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to creditors? Did we notify them of this sage view of ours when we borrowed their money? If we now recognize this doctrine by allowing the seceders to go in peace, it is difficult to see what we can do if others choose to go, or to extort terms upon which they will promise to remain.”
“This relative matter of national power and State rights, as a principle, is no other than the principle of generality and locality. Whatever concerns the whole should be confined to the whole -- to the General Government; while whatever concerns only the State should be left exclusively to the State. This is all there is of original principle about it. Whether the national Constitution, in defining boundaries between the two, has applied the principle with exact accuracy is not to be questioned. We are all bound by that defining, without question.”
Not only did Lincoln believe in greater Federal control, he signed the bill implementing the first Federal Income Tax – a bill passed by the Republican Congress to help ease the economic crisis caused by the impending Civil War, by the way.
Lincoln believed in, and the Republican Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act in 1861, "to provide Internal Revenue to support the Government and to pay Interest on the Public Debt," Today’s ‘Party of Lincoln’ has attempted to cast the very concept of Federal taxation for any purposes other than National Defense, as Socialist money-grab schemes designed to punish the wealthy and hardworking, and reward the lazy and shiftless.
Among other taxes and tariffs, the Internal Revenue Act mandated licensing for;
• Bankers,
• Auctioneers,
• Wholesale and retail dealers,
• Pawnbrokers,
• Distillers,
• Brewers,
• Brokers,
• Tobacconists,
• Jugglers ("Every person who performs by sleight of hand shall be regarded as a juggler under this act.")
• Confectioners,
• Horse dealers,
• Livery stable keepers,
• Cattle brokers,
• Tallow-chandlers,
• Soap makers,
• Coal- oil distillers,
• Peddlers,
• Apothecaries,
• Photographers,
• Lawyers,
• And physicians.
That’s not all;
• Hotels, inns, and taverns - charged license fees of from $5 to $200 according to income.
• Eating houses paid $10 per year for a license,
• Theaters up to $100,
• Circuses $50.
• Bowling alleys and billiard rooms paid according to the number of alleys or tables belonging to or used in the building to be licensed.
• Stamp duties were imposed on legal and business documents and on medicines, playing cards, and cosmetics.
A tax on playing cards? Heaven forbid. If there had been talk radio in 1861, it would have surely been afire with accusations of Lincoln’s and his Republican cohorts’ demagoguery.
Not enough? How about some ‘luxury’ taxes;
• Carriages of any size and shape not used exclusively in farming or in transporting merchandise were taxed from $1 to $6 depending on their value.
• Gold watches were taxed either $1 or $2 depending on their value,
• Pianofortes or other parlor musical instruments were taxed at either $2 or $4.
• Billiard tables not licensed carried an annual tax of $10.
• Gold and silver plate were taxed by the Troy ounce at 50 cents and 5 cents respectively.
• Yachts and pleasure and racing boats were taxed based on tonnage, between $5 for 10 tons or less and $100 for more than 110 tons.
Imagine the outrage if certain nationally-syndicated media superstars of today had taxes levied on their private jets by a Democratic President and Congress? STATISM I Say!
Penalize the rich? Penalize small businesses?? Not Republican principles? Maybe not.
In 1864 – three years after the enacting the revenue act, the Federal Income Tax rate was set to 5% for anyone making up to $5000 ($102,708 in 2007 dollars) and DOUBLE that, 10% for anyone making over $10,000 ($205,416, in 2007.)
“I am in favor of a national bank ... in favor of the internal improvements system and a high protective tariff."
Lincoln’s intentions for the revenue generated by the Federal Income Tax were not simply limited to offset the War effort. They were with the aim of consolidating power and strengthening the central government of the US,
Lincoln championed National Banks and a Federal currency designed to replace individual States’ currencies. He promoted massive federal spending on public works to improve the national infrastructure, and he supported and signed the Morrill Tariff, DOUBLING the tax on imports into America. Not exactly the free trade ideology of today’s GOP.
The list of accomplishments of Lincoln and his Republican party is long, but among them it must be noted that there are many concepts considered heretical to Neo Conservatism;
• The Homestead Act? Low-cost, federally subsidized land sales.
• The Pacific Railways Act? – Taxpayer funding for the expensive ambitious 10 year Intercontinental Railroad plan. (Previously rails were constructed and maintained by the private sector.)
• The Department of Agriculture? – Created under Lincoln to add a layer of government oversight, regulation, and control to the farming industry.
Why would someone who thinks the government shouldn’t be involved in providing housing, who thinks the government shouldn’t tell businesses how to operate, and who is against government regulation claim to be part of the ‘Party of Lincoln’ when Lincoln and his Republicans were responsible for so many concepts that are abhorrent to today’s GOP’s ‘core principles’?
To be clear, some Republicans opposed their party on the issue of income taxes during Lincoln’s presidency, and in 1895 with a Republican majority in Congress and influence on the Supreme Court, the Internal Revenue act was repealed. The concept of the Federal Income Tax, however, was eventually re-introduced and ratified as the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, again by a Republican controlled Congress, in 1913.
Lincoln began his career as a Whig and ended as the Presidential nominee of the National Union Party, so it’s curious that the modern far right version of the GOP has anointed itself as the ‘Party of Lincoln.’ More accurately the party formally known as the Republican Party should be identified with its more direct bigoted, xenophobic, philosophical antecedent – The Know Nothing Movement.
So, enough with the ‘Party of Lincoln’ song and dance, please.
MS 8.11.09
