Can Republicans fairly use Abe Lincoln as a poster pres. for their party?

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boskony

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Wouldn't Abe be a Dem. today? I think he would. Look at recent electoral maps (2000-2006): the Confederacy is very (R) now and the Union is more (D).
 
Remember that the Log Cabin Republicans use him as a poster prez. Or should I say "closet" poster Prez? ;)
 
Yes, but only because LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. When he did so, LBJ remarked to a staffer that "we just lost the south". LBJ was absolutely correct.

Republicans voted in the large majority for the bill, back then, by the way.
 
I seriously doubt the democrats would claim him today. He said the following during the fourth Lincoln-Douglas debate:

"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

Anyone saying this today would be branded the worst kind of "neocon, fascist bigot"
 
Abe Lincoln was a liberal and was even considered to be a radical by the conservatives of his day. He would be a Democrat today.

The former Dixiecrats, southern Democrats whose ancestors would rather have died than voted for the party of Lincoln, now vote for Republicans on the federal level.

Edit: I don't know where people get these strange ideas about John F. Kennedy. Kennedy said:

"But if by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal,' then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal.' "

JFK was a very progressive liberal.

JFK also said:

"And the only basic issue in the 1960 campaign is whether our government WILL FALL IN A CONSERVATIVE RUT AND DIE THERE [emphasis added], or whether we will move ahead in the liberal spirit of daring, of breaking new ground, of doing in our generation what Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson did in their time of influence and responsibility."

Those words are still true today.
 
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