This Used To Be The Party Of Lincoln
Photo by Sandra Grünewald on Unsplash
It is not a theory that we live in a country whose land was stolen from the native inhabitants often using the most savage of methods. It was then built upon the labor of Africans who had been ripped from their homelands and brutalized into submission. These slaves were excluded from the great promises of our Founding Fathers with the concept, enshrined in our Constitution, that these slaves were just ⅗ human.
When America finally confronted the inherent evil of slavery and sought to prevent its further spread, the southern states rebelled and conducted a treasonous war against the union. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party held the country together through battle and finally brought an end to America’s original sin. But the battle was not yet over.
An assassin’s bullet ended Lincoln’s life before he could guide the country through reconstruction. In the vacuum of leadership created by his murder, the seeds of a century of failure were sown. While the KKK is the face of racism for this period of our history, they were not the ones who did the most damage. Yes, they enforced the era of Jim Crow racism with fear and violence, but it was the Democratic politicians of the time who institutionalized it.
Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash
A century later America faced a second chance to place itself on the right side of history and force the full inclusion of the descendants of slaves into the promise envisioned by our founders. Led by great leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights movement confronted bigotry head-on, absorbing the violent resistance to their just journey and peacefully marching on.
On April 4, 1968, an assassin's bullet was once again used to silence the leader America needed. This time the movement continued on. Leaders like John Lewis stepped up, eventually taking the fight from the streets to the halls of power.
If history had been the guide, Lewis would have been welcomed into Congress as a member of the Republican party giving them the chance to complete the journey started by the party’s greatest president. Instead, the GOP had switched direction under Richard Nixon who had used the destabilization of society caused by the rapid change to build power for himself. With the Southern Strategy, the party of Lincoln sacrificed its legacy to appeal to white southerners fearful of the winds of change.
In the 21st century, those winds strengthened to hurricane force with the election of our African-American president. In a country where whites were quickly losing their majority, even the hold on the Oval Office was lost. The response from the racists within the Republican Party was a birther movement that sought to deny the irrefutable fact that Obama was a true American.
The birther movement gave rise to Trump, providing him with a platform from which to launch a movement that spoke to those who felt that America’s best days were a time when minorities knew their place. Newly empowered, they showed a willingness to use violence for political means in ways not seen since the KKK was forced underground. Heather Heyer was murdered in cold blood for daring to protest against monuments erected to honor racist traitors. The Proud Boys openly roamed the streets of Portland firing projectiles into crowds and dousing their political enemies with bear spray. Kyle Rittenhouse killed unarmed protesters in Wisconsin achieving right-wing celebrity status.
On January 6, 2021, the Trump-controlled Republican party showed just how far it had moved away from the values of Lincoln. The violent attempt to overthrow the American government in support of the Big Lie was a step towards authoritarianism. Adherents of the party that used to claim to stand for law and order beat police officers and sprayed toxic chemicals in their faces as they defiled the People’s House in an attempt to overturn an election. A group unwilling to understand why a Black Lives Matter movement is needed called for the police to be prosecuted for shooting Ashli Babbitt as she broke through a window that lead to the Speaker’s Lobby inside the Capitol building. If she had just followed their directions, she would be alive today as a police officer would not have had to fire his gun to stop an advancing mob.
The Republican Party’s leadership is split between those who would cheer Trump on as he shot someone on Fifth Avenue and those who are too weak to stand up to his authoritarian tendencies. The few Republican leaders with the courage to stand up to his assault on Democracy dwindle in numbers as they get pushed out of power by a base set on installing Trump as Dear Leader. All Republican Senators voted against bills to ensure that the right to vote is granted to all eligible citizens with “radical” measures that included:
Automatic registration of people upon interactions with state governments (e.g., the DMV)
Ballots postmarked by Election Day, and received within 7 days, would be valid
Debit cards, utility bills, bank statements, and sworn/witnessed statements would count as voter ID
No prohibitions on giving food/water to people waiting to vote
Greater (though somewhat unspecific) rights to sue for voter discrimination
Election Day made into a federal holiday in presidential and midterm years
The party that once fought to keep our union together is now responsible for trying to tear it apart. The base is more interested in pledging allegiance to Trump than to the UNITED States. Some actively yearn for a second Civil War. Lincoln must be rolling in his grave.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He is an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and serves as the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.