Abraham Lincoln

The Republican Party Is Dead; It Is Now The Trumplican Party!

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It is now official!

The Republican Party has died at the age of 170!

Born in Ripon, Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, as an antislavery and antislavery expansion party, it passed away on July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as Donald Trump selected Ohio Senator JD Vance as his Vice Presidential running mate!

The legacy of the Republican Party, and its great Presidential luminaries—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan–has been repudiated by selecting the future potential leader of the party, JD Vance!

He rejects the foreign policy principles the party pursued in the years since 1945, and with the “mainstream” Republicans of the Reagan-Bush era totally repudiated in domestic affairs by the era of Donald Trump.

It can now be renamed the TRUMPLICAN Party!

Republican Party Destroying Its Future

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While there are a small number of Republicans who are refusing to support Donald Trump in his Presidential campaign, the vast majority have decided to drink the Kool Aid and are sacrificing their principles, honor, and historical reputation in backing a convicted felon.

The hypocrisy is massive, and they have no sense of shame, ethics or morals.

The day will come when they will regret their decision to work against democracy and the rule of law, and they will go down as the villains who destroyed the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, Reagan, the Bushes, Romney, McCain, and many moderate, mainstream Governors and Senators of recent decades.

A true, principled conservative party will rise from the ashes of the 170 years old party, now in its death knell!

FDR Death, And Harry Truman Succession To The Presidency Commemorated!

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Sixty nine years ago, in the midst of late stages of World War II, the longest serving American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, passed away at the age of 63 in Warm Springs, Georgia.

The impact of FDR in his years in office, and the continued significance of his policies and actions, reverberates in America seven decades later, and he is usually ranked second or third among all Presidents in polls and surveys of Presidential scholars.

Serving more than 12 years and starting a fourth term in office, he had a far greater impact in many ways than Abraham Lincoln, who is usually ranked as the greatest American President.

FDR’s “New Deal” still affects America, and his leadership in World War II was crucial for the survival of democracy in the nation and the world.

The death of FDR also led to the Presidency of Harry Truman, tremendously underrated throughout his Presidency and for a generation after his retirement.

But once Truman passed away, recognition of his courageous, principled leadership emerged, and now he is ranked in the top five or six of all Presidents!

His continuation and expansion of the New Deal through the Fair Deal, and his strong leadership in the emerging Cold War made his Presidency extremely significant!

APSA Presidential Greatness Poll 2024: The Next President On Mt. Rushmore, And Most Polarizing And Least Polarizing Presidents!

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The American Political Science Association Presidential Greatness Poll 2024 also asks participants who they would consider should join George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt on the Mt. Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota.

The overwhelming choice was Franklin D. Roosevelt by a wide margin (65.4%), with Barack Obama second with 11%, and a three way tie at 4% among Dwight D. Eisenhower, James Madison, and John F. Kennedy.

And the most Polarizing Presidents were Donald Trump, Andrew Jackson, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush in that order, with the least Polarizing Presidents being George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, Franklin D.Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy in that order.

APSA Presidential Greatness Poll 2024–The Bottom 10 Presidents

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The American Political Science Association Presidential Greatness Poll 2024 makes clear that Donald Trump is the absolute bottom of all 45 Presidents, below James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison, and Warren G. Harding, all with very low total scores, but Trump with a final score of 10.92 as compared to Buchanan’s 16.71, Johnson’s 21.56, Pierce’s 24.6, Harrison’s 26.01, and Harding with 27.76.

The other four at the bottom, numbers 36 to 39 in order, are Herbert Hoover, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Millard Fillmore.

Notice that of these 10 Presidents at the bottom, four are the Presidents preceding Abraham Lincoln and one following him.

The others are Harding and Hoover from the 1920s; and one month President William Henry Harrison and his successor John Tyler in the early 1840s, when the Presidency came under attack due to the first Vice President succeeding the President due to death of the incumbent.

And then there is Donald Trump, who ranks last for those participants in the poll who are identified as Democrats, Independents, Liberals, and Moderates; and even for those who identify themselves as Republicans or Conservatives, Trump only rises to number 43, with Buchanan and Johnson rated below Trump by Republicans, and Buchanan and Pierce rated below Trump by Conservatives.

Also note that the only Presidents of this group who served a full term were Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Herbert Hoover, and Donald Trump.

APSA Presidential Greatness Poll: Top 10 Presidents In 2024 Survey

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The American Political Science Association Presidential Greatness project has published its findings, just in time for Presidents’ Day today.

This is the first in a number of days of discussion of the results.

The top 10 Presidents in the Survey demonstrates the rise of Democratic Presidents, who now number five of the group—with Franklin D. Roosevelt as number 2, behind Abraham Lincoln, surpassing George Washington who is now number 3; Harry Truman remaining number 6; Barack Obama amazingly rising to number 7, the highest he has been on any Presidential scholarly survey; and Lyndon B. Johnson surpassing John F. Kennedy, with Johnson number 9 and Kennedy number 10.

Additionally in the top ten is Truman successor Dwight D. Eisenhower as number 8, making five presidents in a row from FDR through LBJ part of the top ten.

Theodore Roosevelt as number 4 and Thomas Jefferson as number 5 remain consistently in their positions in the top 10.

So besides five Democrats in the top 10, there are three Republicans (Lincoln, TR, Ike), along with Federalist George Washington and Democratic-Republican Jefferson.

The “Lost Cause” After Civil War Again Rears Its Ugly Head In 2024!

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Hard to believe, but the American Civil War (1861-1865) continues to divide America more than a century and a half after its impact on America!

Nikki Haley has trouble realizing that slavery was the major cause of the Civil War.

Ron DeSantis, when a high school teacher two decades ago, told his students that slavery was NOT the major cause of the Civil War.

Donald Trump tells us that Abraham Lincoln should have negotiated with slave owners, as it might have prevented the Civil War, and that Lincoln would not be remembered if it was not for the bloodshed of that war.

The “Lost Cause”, that of “states rights”, was used in the South to propagandize for generations the fact that the South had lost the war, and only was finally overcome in most circles since the 1960s, but now the new MAGA Republican propaganda is reviving the old myth, which justified Jim Crow segregration, lynching, and denial of basic civil rights to African Americans for a century after the Civil War.

Leave it to those who attack DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), and the nation will be going backwards in understanding of our history, and promoting racial reconciliation, so the battle against the “Lost Cause” must be waged!

2024 Presidential Election Crucial As Were 1864 And 1964 Elections, And They Were Election Landslides!

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One could argue that every Presidential Election is significant in some shape or form, but certain elections stand out as turning points in the promotion of American democracy.

Such are the Presidential Elections of 1864 and 1964, and now moving forward, 2024!

In all three, the sustaining of American democracy was crucial, and in the first two cases, the results, after much concern, were massive landslides, hopefully setting the scene for 2024!

In 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln was running for reelection in the midst of the American Civil War, with his opponent being General George McClellan, who was resentful of his firing for poor performance from Union Army leadership, and represented to many the Confederate hope of pulling out victory late in the Civil War.

Lincoln was so concerned that victory was unattainable, that he decided to replace Vice President Hannibal Hamlin with a Southern Loyalist Democrat Andrew Johnson, and the Republicans invited War Democrats into the party by changing their name to the National Union Party.

The end result was a landslide with Lincoln winning all but three states, winning 55 percent of the vote, and an Electoral College majority of 212-21!

A century later, President Lyndon B. Johnson, having succeeded to the Presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy less than a year earlier, faced the most right wing Republican contender for the Presidency in modern times, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who advocated ending the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, including Social Security, and also opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Johnson went on to a landslide victory, winning 61.1 percent of the popular vote, the all time high, and 44 of 50 states and 486-52 in the Electoral College, but with five Southern states going to Goldwater, the beginning of the political realignment that has made the South solidly Republican ever since, with only a few exceptions when Democrats nominated Southerners for the Presidency, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Johnson went on to promote the Great Society, a massive increase in government programs, way beyond the New Deal of FDR.

Now in 2024, with the Republican Party being the most extreme right wing since Goldwater, and arguably more so, Joe Biden faces a challenge not only on a personal level, but also on overcoming the menace of Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans, who have repudiated the original basis of the Republican Party’s founding, opposing slavery and its expansion, and instead promoting racism and nativism 170 years after the origins of the party in Michigan and Wisconsin in 1854!

161st Anniversary Of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation!

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Today, New Year’s Day 2024, marks the 161st Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, a bold move that his own Presidential Cabinet thought was inadvisable.

While it only ended slavery at the time in areas under Union Army occupation during the Civil War, it was a pledge that the eventual victory of the United States over the Confederate States of America, when and if it occurred, another 27.5 months into the future, would see the concept of the ownership of human beings by other human beings would come to an end.

It must be pointed out, however, that the Emancipation Proclamation alone could not end slavery, as it was written into the US Constitution by the Founding Fathers at the Philadelphia convention of the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Only the battle to add the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865 could end slavery long term, and set America up as a promoter of democracy.

Now, sadly, we see the party of Lincoln moving backward on the principle of promoting racial equality, and appealing to the ugliness of racism and nativism, as it enters an election year seemingly captive to the most dangerous man ever to hold the Presidency, Donald Trump!

2024 must see the end of the menace of Donald Trump by a total commitment to defeat his attempt at a comeback, and move away from the dangers of MAGA Republicans!

The Republican Party And Race, Repudiation Of Founding Of The Party 170 Years Ago!

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With the new year 2024 coming tomorrow, it will mark 170 years since the Founding of the Republican Party in 1854, dedicated to opposition to the expansion of slavery, and including abolitionists in its midst, who committed themselves to the total end of slavery.

For many decades after the end of slavery, Southern Democrats promoted discrimination against African Americans, including lynchings, Jim Crow segregation, and denial of voting rights, and also a nativist attitude toward Catholic and Jewish immigration.

Sixty years ago, the Democratic Party under Lyndon B. Johnson finally liberated the party from this racism and nativism, only to have these Southern Democrats rush en masse to the Republican Party.

There was still a great deal of resistance by many Republicans, until the rise of Donald Trump, but now, the Republican Party has become an openly racist and nativist party without shame, and has also worked against women’s rights and voting rights.

The Republicans of the founding era would be shocked at how the Republican Party has repudiated its basic principles.

The Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2024 give decent Americans the opportunity to repudiate the disgraceful Republican Party, which puts Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and decent Congressional Republicans who contributed to American history on a totally different level than the modern disaster the party has become!