Archive for February, 2009
The Treasury of Counterfeit Virtue
Lincoln’s pretty words in the Gettysburg Address managed to have it both ways—he was, he claimed, preserving the sacred old Union and at the same time promulgating a “new birth of freedom” that was somehow necessary to save government of the people. But these were not the arguments normally used by the spokesmen of his party to justify their war.
“Buy American”—or Bye-Bye America
Congress is sending a message: The rebuilding of America is to be a project of, by and for Americans, not outsourced. Sen. McCain’s free-trade amendment, to strip all Buy American provisions from the bill, was routed 65 to 31. The reaction of Barack Obama, a NAFTA skeptic in 2008 with bumper stickers that read, “Buy American, Vote Obama,” was to genuflect to the gods of globalism and recant his economic patriotism.
Obama as Lincoln: Mask and Mirror
Obama’s identification with Lincoln is all tied up with the issue of race and the idea that an Obama presidency is somehow the fulfillment of the Lincolnian dream of a land where the descendant of slaves could attain the highest office in the land. But of course there is nothing Lincolnian about this dream
It Can’t Be Repeated Too Often (Until It Sinks In), Cont’d
America was not founded as a “nation of immigrants.” It came into being as many communities of brave settlers and pioneers, who adapted their British law and religion for the use of their free communities. However, America is now a nation of immigrants in the exact sense of the term.
Money, Money, Money
The thing is, we can’t ever do without the rich, bitterly as we may despise them. Wealth, proportionate or disproportionate to effort and merit, is what comes of exertion. If you want to abolish wealth, abolish exertion, but you probably wouldn’t want to, because then life would stop. Everything would run down.
Lincoln and God
Through use of rhetoric about a righteous and triumphant God, Lincoln exploited religious feelings in the North to carry out a four-year war against Southern civilians. Women, children, the sick, and the elderly were targeted; homes and cities burned; crops destroyed; and domestic animals slaughtered.
Shattering Lincoln’s Dream
Though Lincoln was largely right about slavery, he was wrong about secession—a separate question, as most Northerners once understood. During his war, millions of Northerners who opposed slavery also recognized the right of a sovereign state to secede from the Union. This led Lincoln to crack down on dissent, closing down hundreds of newspapers (many permanently) and having a few thousand war critics arrested.
It Can’t Be Repeated Too Often (Until It Sinks In)
The main problem with free enterprise is that it is impossible to get Big Business to practice it.
Lincolnism Today: The Long Marriage of Centralized Power and Concentrated Wealth
The instinctive revulsion of at least a plurality of the people at the prospect of the bailout suggests a healthy level of distrust of both government and corporate leaders. Lincolnists consistently frame government giveaways and gifts to private interests as vital for the national interest and the common good. In so doing, they conceal the antirepublican character of the ideology of the first Republican president.
A Week of Lincoln
Thursday, February 12, 2009, marks the Bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. To mark the occasion, ChroniclesMagazine.org will post at least one article each day of the week beginning February 9, and concluding with Friday the 13th. Up first on Monday is Daniel Larison’s View from the February issue, “Lincolnism Today: The Long Marriage of Centralized Power and Concentrated Wealth.” Check back regularly for updates, and be sure to leave your comments.
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