Andrew Klavan’s pejorative naming of the New York Times as a “former newspaper” is continually proved through the work that editors decide to post. Most recently, senior editor Dan Barry very fittingly proved Klavan’s point in writing a recent piece of his titled On Blood-Soaked Ground, a ‘Prayer for the Future’ of a Divided Land. While following a man through the annual celebration of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Barry nostalgically looks back on the days when presidents used to be more “presidential.”
We’ve all heard this argument before. It’s the argument your Liberal aunt makes when she wants to sound like she always played both sides before Trump came on the scene. Comparing the stoic, pensive Republicans of yesteryear to the deplorable MAGA Republicans, Barry paints a picture of the principled Republican Party of Lincoln and (presumably) the Cheneys versus the unhinged, radical Republican Party of Donald Trump.
However, Barry couldn’t possibly be further from the truth. To the modern ear, Lincoln may sound like the docile intellectual the Left wants him to be thought of as, leading to a supposed disparity between his stoicism and the unabashedness of Donald Trump. Although President Lincoln spoke in scores, and may not have been brash the way President Trump is considered as being, nothing takes away from the fact that Abraham Lincoln was undoubtedly the Donald Trump of his era.
Lincoln came from the frontierland, doing the work of a man from the age of 9 after his mother died of milk sickness. Earning most of his commission from working on the farms of neighbors, the future president was the primary supporter of his father and sister, despite his reluctance to hand over his hard earned money to his bossy, demanding father. Lincoln was the all-American hero every patriot looks to for inspiration, excelling through working hard no matter the curveballs life threw at him.
While he may not elicit the same sense of toughness in the sense of growing up poor and attaining no formal education, President Trump worked tirelessly to become the successful businessman he is today. Contrary to the claims of his haters, Donald Trump turned $400 Million in inheritance to around $4 Billion from just 1999 to 2016, transforming multiple neighborhoods in Manhattan from rundown tenements to apples of real estate agents’ eyes. Lincoln and Trump are both signs of their respective times. Lincoln, perfectly embodying the spirit of resilience present in every soul that expanded West in his readiness to work through any tribulation and right any wrong was the culmination of the American conscience throughout the 1800s, as Trump does exactly the same today. With the latest numbers showing universal shifts among key groups in America towards the Republican party, and the fact that all 50 states experienced a shift towards Republicans, the MAGA movement most certainly personifies the disgust the American people has towards the reckless policies of the Left. The massive changes both men brought with them invited ire from all sides of the political spectrum. In the 1860s, Lincoln was the Republican deplorable the political class tried so hard to stop.
Continuing on, the article’s main subject, Harold Holzer mourns the stoic nature of “Honest Abe” in the midst of such a divided time, however he seems to forget that the country’s overwhelming petition for “a man with 34 felony convictions” is the most united the people have ever been. Taking advantage of Democrats’ disorder, both men rallied the American people, winning decisive victories in both branches and ultimately ending the reign of the Democrat political elite. As for reactions to each Republican’s victory, the only difference between those with Lincoln Derangement syndrome and Trump Derangement syndrome is that the former were less willing to give up their property in attempting to “move” out of the U.S. In other words, if Ellen DeGeneres had had more of a connection with her house, she too, would have tried to secede from the Union, claiming a new country called The Ellen Confederacy.
Even in faults, both Lincoln and Trump are similar. In the eyes of many libertarians, Trump may not have promised to dismantle all of the harmful federal agencies, and in the eyes of conservatives, he may not be willing to go far enough in saying that more than just children should not be able to get “gender reassignment” surgeries. However Lincoln fell prey to the same type of blindness, as in the eyes of Radical Republicans, he was not willing to fully commit to instant abolition, and in the eyes of civil rights activists, he did not believe strongly enough in racial equality. In the words of Christopher Columbus “Those that are enlightened before the others are condemned to pursue that light in spite of others.” Neither man is fully enlightened, however they both came close enough to complete enlightenment to begin mass political and cultural revolutions, which endured (and will endure) through generations.
Throughout the season, Democrats emphatically and incessantly proclaimed the necessity of “policy over personality” While policy is inevitably more important than which racial accent one chooses to use at a rally, or which celebrity twerks on the stage, Democrats only follow this principle when it is convenient for them. Obviously, the smokescreen is up when the Left attempts to compare Donald Trump to Abraham Lincoln. The real similarity between the two is in their drive to save the country, and their resolve to do so despite all efforts to stop them. After all, as Michael Knowles observes, the nostalgia Barry feels is only “history after a few drinks.”
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