Lincoln feared current GOP orthodoxy

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Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President (1861–1865), was clearly a centrist. By the standards of today's GOP, he would be labeled by many in the GOP, especially Tea Partiers, as a "socialist". 


By the way, so would the GOP's more recent man-god Ronald Reagan. Both Lincoln, and Reagan, by the GOP's own definition, were SOCIALISTS.


Of course that is preposterous. But so is calling President Obama this name, meant as a slur.


Neither man is a socialist in a pejorative sense. Actually, we are all socialists. If you believe in things in our society that are funded by the government, then you are a socialist.


Don't agree with that? Allow me to prove it.

• Believe in the Post Office? You're a socialist
• Believe in Medicare? You're a socialist
• Believe in Social Security? You're a socialist
• Believe in Food Stamps? You're a socialist
• Believe in sidewalks, or public parks, or Arlington Memorial Cemetery, or any public cemetery, and on, and on, and on. If so, you're a socialist
• If you believe in ANYTHING listed above or anything publicly funded...YOU. ARE. A. SOCIALIST.

But more to the point (and Lincoln's quote above) we ALL, left and right, should fear an oligarchy or plutocracy. Wikipedia defines it as follows:

Oligarchy (from Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarkhía); from ὀλίγος (olígos), meaning "a few", and ἄρχω (archo), meaning "to rule or to command")^[1][2][3] is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people. These people could be distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, education, corporate, or military control. Such states are often controlled by a few prominent families who pass their influence from one generation to the next.

Throughout history, some oligarchies have been tyrannical, relying on public servitude to exist, although others have been relatively benign. Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as a synonym for rule by the rich,^[4] for which the exact term is plutocracy, but oligarchy is not always a rule by wealth, as oligarchs can simply be a privileged group, and do not have to be connected by bloodlines as in amonarchy.

I've underlined the part above that should scare you to death, given our current direction, and the persistent push by the GOP to more and more favor the wealthy and corporations.


We are a Republic, where "one man, one vote", and "of the people, by the people, for the people" is enshrined in our core document. We are, most important, a representative democracy, where each of us votes representation and thereby controls the destiny of our nation. If that representation is overly represented by a single group, especially a small group with enormous and inordinate power, each of us become slaves to our nation, rather than free citizens. We simply must resist the money that is currently in politics. We must insist on legislation that overturns the horrendous Citizens United decision which allows wealthy individuals and corporations to spend unlimited, anonymous dollars and thereby control our elections and worse, control our elected officials. 


Already we see this in the 2012 Presidential campaign. Billionaires are picking candidates like race horses and running them out there. If that doesn't remind you of Greek and Roman history, with peasants running into coliseums to be fed to lions, then you're not paying attention.


Money in politics will always exist, but if we are not careful, we will lose control of our democracy. If you're not fighting mad at Citizens United, not disgusted by the pandering on both side, but especially on the right, to the wealthy, and to corporations, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM. And I, am against you.

Stand up.