Monday, January 20, 2014

New Rule: Republicans must stop claiming Lincoln

Today, the Republican Party of Minnesota decided to take this MLK day to remind us of how they've never stopped fighting for freedom

Included in their mailing was a link to this video of Louisiana Senator Elbert Guillory explaining why he switched his party affiliation to Republican. I for one cannot follow his reasoning.


It is the right decision, not only for me but for all my brothers and sisters in the black community. You see in recent history, the Democratic Party has created the illusion that their agenda and their policies are what's best for black people. Somehow, it's been forgotten that the Republican Party was founded in 1854 as an abolitionist movement with one simple creed: that slavery is a violation of the rights of man.
Fredrick Douglas called the Republicans the party of freedom and progress, and the first Republican president was Abraham Lincoln, the author of the emancipation proclamation. It was Republicans in Congress who authored the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments giving former slaves citizenship, voting rights, and due process under the law.
The Democrats, on the other hand, were the party of Jim Crowe who defended the rights of slave owners. 
It was the Republican president Dwight Eisenhower who championed the civil rights act of 1957, but it was the Democrats in the Senate who filibustered the bill. 
The rest of the video cries out for rebuttal as well, but this quote was the root source of my irritation.

Yes, Abraham Lincoln and Eisenhower were Republicans, when the Republicans were the liberal party fighting against the racist conservative Democrats. The Parties have change dramatically over the centuries, most drastically over the last 50 years. Eisenhower may have championed a civil rights bill as a Republican liberal Republican, but it was Lyndon B. Johnson (D) who in 1960 would fill in the holes and compromises the 1957 legislation.

When LBJ made that decision, he rightfully feared retribution from his own party, particularly southern democrats. Nixon would soon arrive on the scene to pioneer "The Southern Strategy" which finally secured the southern state voting block for the Republican party. Over the next decade, the Republican Party solidified it control of the Bible belt. Soon, the rise of evangelical movements like Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority" would come to dominate the Republican party in the name of social conservatism.

In a very short span of time, the pro-segregation Democrats gave way to the pro-equality Democrats and the liberal Republicans morphed into the party evangelical conservatives they remain to this day.

So don't give me any of this "Lincoln was a Republican" bullshit anymore. The only thing the two parties have in common over all this time is the name.

But Guillory isn't done yet:
You see, at the heart of Liberalism is the idea that only a great and powerful big government can be the benefactor of social justice for all Americans. But the Left is only concerned with one thing: control. And they disguise this control as charity. Programs such as welfare food stamps, these programs aren't designed to lift black Americans out of poverty, they were ALWAYS intended as a mechanism for politicians to control the black community.
The idea that blacks, or anyone for that matter, need the government to get ahead in life is despicable. 
And even more important, this idea is a failure. Our communities are just as poor as they've always been. Our schools continue to fail children. Out prisons are filled with young black men who should be at home being fathers. Our self initiative and our self reliance have been sacrificed in exchange for allegiance to our overseers who control us by making us dependent on them.   
Sometime [sic] I wonder if the word freedom is tossed around so frequently in our society that is has become a cliche. The idea of freedom is complex and it's all-encompassing. It's the idea that the economy must remain free of government persuasion. It's the idea that the press must operate without government intrusion. And it's the idea that the emails and phone records of Americans should remain free from government search and seizure. 
It's the idea that parents must be the decision makers with regards to their children's education, not some government bureaucrat. But most importantly it's the idea that the individual must be free to pursue his or her own happiness, free from government dependence and free from government control. Because to be truly free is to be reliant on no one other than author of our destiny [Guillory points heavenward]. 
These are the ideas at the core of the Republican Party, and it is why I am a Republican. So my brothers and sisters of the American community, please join with me today in abandoning the government plantation and the party of disappointment so that we may all echo the words of one Republican Leader who famously said: 'Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty we are free at last.'
Let's assume for a minute that the Democrats are indeed the party of disappointment and they have failed in their attempts to alleviate suffering in the African American community. Even so, I don't understand how you can justify turning to the party implementing Voter ID laws in many states that were considered far too obviously racist by the Voting Rights Act to be implemented before conservatives on the Supreme Court struck it down because apparently racism doesn't exist anymore.

I don't understand wanting government to have less control and joining the party of mandatory ultrasounds and .

I don't understand calling for emails and phone records to remain "free from government search and seizure" and joining the party that instituted the Patriot Act in the first place.

I don't understand joining the party that needs to be coached on how not to sound racist in order to better fight for racial equality.

I don't get it at all.


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