The Civil War Never Ended

Good words for liberals to remember.

"The world has never had a good definition of the word 'liberty.' The American people just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty. But in using the same word, we do not all mean the same thing.

"What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts -- these are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty, which God has planted in our bosom. Our defence is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own door.

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow?

"Never.

"All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer that if it ever reach us, it must spring from amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be the authors and finishers.

"As a nation of free men, we must live through our times or die by suicide. Let reverence for the law be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in the schools, in the seminaries and in the colleges; let it be written in primers, in spelling books and almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice; and in short, let it become the political religion of the nation. And let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly at its altar. And let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued care of Divine Providence, trusting that in future national emergencies, He will not fail to provide us the instruments of safety and security.

"Let us not be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, nor of dungeons to ourselves.

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

-- Abraham Lincoln

It sprang from the south all those decades ago and guess what? It isn't dead yet. The hate and bigotry and fear that was the Confederate South still lives on in the Republican Party. It's the poison that has polluted our great nation.

We are still fighting the Civil War, my dear, liberal friends. It's a Cold Civil War but make no mistake about it, we are still fighting that war a century and a half later.

If you don't think so, here's what southern Republicans had to say when a statue of Lincoln was proposed in Richmond:

Outraged letters streamed into local newspapers, likening Lincoln to Hitler, Saddam and Osama. Protesters from the white supremacist hate group European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) took to Richmond's streets, handing out pamphlets ironically accusing the "Great Emancipator" of being the "Great Segregationist."

More than 3,000 signed an online petition started by Ron Holland, a prominent member of the white supremacist League of the South hate group. Many petition-signers took the opportunity to vent their splenetic feelings about the man who consistently tops polls as the nation's most widely admired president.

"Just say NO to America's greatest WAR CRIMINAL the murderer of 600,000!!" exclaimed Robert G. Patrick.

"Not even with a rope around his neck," declared Dewey Lee Martin.

"Why not put up a statue of Osama Bin Laden at Ground Zero?" wondered Mary Looney. "It is the equivalent, to Southerners, of what's proposed for Richmond."

"Build a John Wilkes Booth statue instead," suggested Ken E. Neff.

The Cheap Labor Conservatives have stripped the Norths industrial base. They've left the blacks to die in New Orleans. They're doing everything they can to get what they had before the Emancipation Proclamation: Cheap Labor.

The Cheap Labor Conservatives, my friends, will not agree to any middle ground. They will not compromise. As Lincoln also said about the Confederacy:

So, what will satisfy them? We must stop calling slavery wrong. We must call it right. We cannot be silent. We must be with them. We must support Senator Douglas's sedition act, it must be enacted and enforced. We must suppress all declarations that slavery is wrong. We must pull down the Free State Constitutions. Yes, to outlaw slavery is to say it is wrong, so we must allow slavery. We must remove all taint of opposition to slavery. This, and this alone, will satisfy them.

So, Republicans, I say: Do not give in! Do not compromise! Do not seek some middle ground between right and wrong. "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

What will satisfy them today? As the DLC'ers tell us, we must find common ground. We must appease them. We must stop calling Cheap Labor Conservatism wrong. We must do as the Cantwells, and the Liebermans and vote for the NAFTA's and CAFTA's and Bankruptcy Bills. We must compromise.

But there is no compromise today as there was no compromise then. There are no swing voters. There is no middle ground. It is us or them folks.

And by the way, Lincoln foresaw the rise of the Cheap Labor Conservatives way back then:

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

Oh, and in case you're wondering: the initial speech I posted was the speech the animated Abraham Lincoln used to give at Disneyland. It was comprised of several of the real Lincoln's speeches. Really good show. Wish he still gave that one.