Rejecting Lincoln's America
We live in Lincoln’s America as much as anyone else’s. Which makes it supremely ironic that Lincoln’s partisan political descendants, the modern Republican Party, wants to destroy it.
Jamelle Bouie is always worth a read. Case in point: in today's New York Times, he describes how far the Right has drifted from Lincoln's vision of America. The modern Republican Party, Lincoln's own political descendants, actively seek to dismantle the very republic of equals he fought to create. Read thee whole thing, as they say. I have summarized it below though.
Even the Gettysburg Address had its detractrors
Bouie starts with something I did not know: the Gettysburg Address actually had critics at the time. A Chicago Times editorialist even called Lincoln's famous speech "a perversion of history so flagrant that the most extended charity cannot regard it as otherwise than willful."
The problem? Lincoln's opening line about America being "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." This critic contended that Lincoln was wrong—pointing to the Constitution's slavery provisions and arguing that soldiers at Gettysburg died to uphold that Constitution, not some lofty ideal about equality.
The editorialist even said the founders "were men possessing too much self-respect to declare that negroes were their equals." And he may well have been right. But Lincoln had other ideas.
Lincoln's vision versus the hierarchy crowd
This gets to the heart of Bouie's argument. Lincoln imagined America as embodying the Declaration of Independence's principles, while his critics—from Stephen Douglas to Confederate leaders—viewed America as a society of "rigid, permanent hierarchies." Lincoln's side won through force of arms, and Reconstruction attempted to write equality into the Constitution itself.
Because of this, we live in "Lincoln's America," which makes it ironic that today's Republicans want to tear it all down.
Old ideas, new hoods
Bouie focuses on Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri. The senator gave a speech at a "National Conservativism" conference that goes even further than JD Vance's usual rhetoric. Schmitt dismissed America as an "idea" and showed contempt for what he calls "five words about equality" from the Declaration of Independence.
Think about that for a second. He's talking about "all men are created equal"—words that Bouie rightly calls "among the most important in human history." These weren't just nice thoughts; they represented something unprecedented—universal equality merged with revolutionary claims about political authority.
Those five words changed the world
Bouie traces the influence of those Declaration principles through American history. The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 echoed them for women's rights. Frederick Douglass called them "saving principles." Eugene Debs invoked them for labor rights. Martin Luther King Jr. praised their "profound, eloquent, and unequivocal language" about human dignity.
But Schmitt? He wants none of it. For him, America isn't an idea—it's "blood and soil, a nation and a people, with its own distinct history and heritage and interests." Fascists and their blood and soil. And the blood to be spilled isn't white.
Ignoring history
Here's where Schmitt's argument falls apart . He defines "Americans" as descendants of "Christian pilgrims," pioneers, and settlers. He dreams of an exclusive club that leaves out huge chunks of people who've been here from the beginning.
He talks about America as a "homeland for themselves and their descendants," claiming it as "our birthright, our heritage, our destiny."
But as Bouie points out, America's actual heritage is that of a "Creole nation"—a mix of Native, European, African, and Asian influences. Albert Murray captured it perfectly:
"American culture, even in its most rigidly segregated precincts, is patently and irrevocably composite."
Nothing new under the sun
Ever the bright bulbs, Schmitt and others present this as some fresh critique of liberal ideology. But we know it's just recycled fascigs, white-supremacist garbage from American racism's greatest hits. George Wallace couldeasily have said it in 1963. Or from early 20th-century white supremacist Lothrop Stoddard, or from pro-slavery ideologue George Fitzhugh in the 1850s, or from David Duke much more recently.
They all wanted to "turn the page on those 'five words about equality.'"
The unfinished work
Lincoln challenged Americans to commit to the "great task" of preserving a nation "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." According to Bouie, Schmitt and other "national conservatives" think this work has "already gone too far."
That's the real tragedy here. Instead of continuing Lincoln's unfinished work toward a more perfect union, they want to abandon the whole project and retreat into some mythical homeland that never really existed in the first place. See the Lost Cause bullshit. They have plenty of practice at make believe.
If we survive this, this country will need a full, proper, and finished reconstruction. (Ed. Note: teaser, more on that to come here.)
If we survive this, this country will need a full, proper, and finished reconstruction. (Ed. Note: teaser, more on that to come here.)
