“The Party of Lincoln”? I think not!

I’ve been YouTube‘ing quite a bit in recent months.

For you old fogies still unfamiliar with the term, “YouTube” is a website where anyone can upload short “homemade” videos for the world to see. I put “homemade” in quotes because MANY users (like myself) skirt the rules a bit and upload videos containing content that might be considered copywritten (and many are downright recorded straight from the TV and uploaded unedited). And members that view your videos can rate them (1 to 5 stars) and even leave comments.

My personal mainstay has been politically themed video clips exposing the lies, hypocrisy and often outright crimes perpetrated by The Bush Administration and Conservatives in general.

In any case, whenever someone posts a comment about one of my videos, I’m alerted by e-mail, and as you might imagine, some of the comments I get from The Hitler Youth out there are real doozies. I’m pleased to say it is a very small minority of YouTubers, and in general, if you browse the political videos on the site, you’ll notice a very definite Anti-Bush majority out there (I’d estimate upwards 80%-90%). If YouTuber’s are the future, the future looks bright.

Comments posted by hardcore NeoCon’s are typically poorly worded, dripping with profanity and heavy in denial. I’ve actually tried engaging some of these Plebians in a rational discussion, but it always becomes immediately apparent that if these people were rational, they wouldn’t be spouting their nonsense in the first place. I find far too frequently that the people spewing this hatred are too young to have any mature memories of life under the Clinton Administration. Their formative years spent dining on a steady diet of hate, violence and red-state rascism. The world is “out to get them”, and facts are open to debate. And of course, Republicans can do no wrong and Democrats can do no right, as far as these junior fascists are concerned. After all, they are “The Party of Lincoln”, what could be more nobel than that?

So, as it happens, I had a couple of these numbnuts criticizing me for criticizing President Bush, and both of them used the phrase “Party of Lincoln” to defend themselves. Then I read about GOP Party Chairman Ken Mehlman DESPERATELY trying to woo back African-American voters on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, using the phrase “Party of Lincoln” again to remind black voters that the GOP is their long lost home.

Folks, this “Party of Lincoln” nonsense has been a pet peeve of mine for years now, and I’ll tell you why:

Emancipation is about the most socially Liberal, anti-business policy ever handed down by a President of either Party. If Lincoln were a Republican today, he’d be arguing that freeing the slaves would be “a hardship, thrusting millions into unemployment, and devistate business unable to compete in the world market due to increased labor costs.”

It strikes me odd that Conservative Republicans today that proudly use the phrase “Party of Lincoln” are proud of something so antithetical to their own beliefs. They aren’t saying “Party of Lincoln” because of Lincoln’s tax policies. They aren’t saying “Party of Lincoln” because of Lincoln’s fiscal responsibility. They aren’t saying “Party of Lincoln” because of Lincoln’s dedication to smaller government, anti-abortion or institution of religious doctrine into government. No. when they say “Party of Lincoln”, they are boasting about one thing and one thing only: Emancipation… freeing the slaves… the most socially Liberal, anti-big business proclamation EVER handed down by Washington. A proclamation so Liberal it makes FDR look like Rush Limbaugh.

Despite what most people have come to falsely believe, the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) was NOT over slavery. President Lincoln, a long-time abolitionist, was against slavery, but we were more than a year and a half into the Civil War before Lincoln finally issued the “Emancipation Proclamation” (January 1, 1863) as a military strategy to throw the South into chaos in an attempt to win the war. The South relied heavily on slave labor to keep its war machine running. The cotton they picked was used to make uniforms, provide tents, stitch bandages, not to mention provide a revenue stream to fund the war effort.

While Lincoln may have always wanted to free the slaves, it was only under the guise of “military strategy” that he could convince his Party to support it. Had it of not been for the Civil War and the South’s heavy dependency upon slave labor, we might very well still have slavery today. So even when Republicans try to PROUDLY stake claim to the most socially Liberal and anti-big business proclamation in history, even their reasons for doing so 144 years ago is circumspect.

So the next time you hear a Republican proudly proclaim that they are of “The Party of Lincoln”, ask them what it is exactly that they are so proud of, and then remind them of just how Liberal and anti-big business that act they so proudly lay claim to really is.

This entry was posted on October 29, 2006 at 12:50 am and is filed under Political News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.