Citizen Journal Blog

Someone at the DNC should get some Halidol to the folks at Howard Dean for President, and fast. “Unhinged” would be understating things. Today, Kos references Republicans as “American Taliban” seeking “Afghanistan-style theocracy” and Armando writes this about Bill Frist and the “nuclear option”:

…we know Frist is playing to the extreme Religious Right which now controls the Republican Party…For the past few days, there has been a debate on "values" and how to play the issue politically. Frankly, I find it a boring debate that misses where we now stand in the political wars. For some time now, I have advocated a Lincoln 1860 strategy. Many folks have interpreted this as a "Screw the South" approach. It is not explicitly so - though it is certainly possible that the upshot is to weaken Dem chances in the short term for winning in the South. It is my view that this is giving up nothing as we are not going to win in the South in national elections anytime soon anyway. [He then quotes Abraham Lincoln.]…These are dangerous times…we face a Republican Party as extreme as the secessionists of Lincoln's time, prepared to discard the form of government laid down by the Founders - prepared to destroy the separation of powers and an independent judicial branch.

Kos et al. have always been more prolific than eloquent, but if they're half as influential among the left as Kos seems to think, good Lord, Kos, just keep typing. Please.

Replies: 3 Comments

Posted by: Aaron On Tuesday, April 19th

What liberation are the conservatives fighting for? You've failed to make that clear.

Who's being liberated when we have state-mandated school prayer? Who's being liberated when gays aren't allowed to marry? Who's being liberated by allowing church and state to become one?

We've got the judiciary to fight against people like you with ridiculous ideas that your religious/moral views should be reflected in law.

Posted by: Nathan Smith On Monday, April 18th

There's a big difference between today's Democrats and Lincoln's Republicans in 1860.

Lincoln saw a threat to the Union and responded to it by expanding freedom. Though he was not without doubts initially, and though he was slow about making the goal of liberation explicit, he ultimately freed millions of people. In this respect, he is much like Bush. Today's Democrats, with quite a few honorable exceptions to be sure, are against liberation.

Second, on the question of the judiciary, today's conservatives are with Lincoln. The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, essentially extended slavery to the entire territory of the Union by affirming that slaves could be brought to the north and remain slaves. Lincoln was drawn into politics as part of the outraged reaction against the pretension of the Slave Power. Today, likewise, on issues ranging from school prayer and church and state to gay marriage to abortion, liberal power entrenched in the judiciary has usurped power that ought to belong to the people.

Yes, we need judges. Unfortunately, while there are checks and balances between the legislative and executive branches, and while the judicial acts as a check on both, our constitution does not provide any checks and balances against the judiciary. Bertrand Russell once remarked that it was a tribute to the sagacity of the American people that the doctrine of judicial review had led to only one civil war.

Never since Lincoln's death have the Republicans lived up to the legacy of Lincoln so fully. They, and certainly not the Democrats, are truly The Party of Lincoln.

Posted by: Aaron On Saturday, April 16th

Man's got a point. Conservatives have been scoffing at the Judicial Branch lately so often that it's beginning to really worry me. We have three branches of government, and when the Executive and the Legislative work together to undermine the third branch... well... that's not how America was supposed to be.

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