HuffPo - "Just 23 Percent Of Americans Think Abraham Lincoln Would Be A Republican Today"

[TomCADem]

The irony, of course, is that now the Republican party is filled with elected who openly advocate secession.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/abraham-lincoln-poll_n_4305179.html

The 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address has given rise to plenty of conjecture about how it might play in modern times. We've already speculated about how modern media might cover the speech -- now, an online YouGov poll finds Americans think President Abraham Lincoln's partisan affiliation also might be somewhat different if he was alive today.

Just 23 percent of Americans say that Lincoln would be a Republican today, while 32 percent think he would be a Democrat and 19 percent say he'd be an independent. In a separate question, 23 percent said he'd be a tea party member.

Majorities in both parties tried to claim Lincoln for themselves -- 62 percent of Democrats said he'd be one of them, while 55 percent of Republicans predicted he would remain in the GOP.

Disagreements over the Civil War also continue. Opinions were almost evenly split about whether the war was more about slavery or states' rights, with a clear partisan divide: Democrats said "slavery" by a 54 percent to 30 percent margin, while Republicans said "states' rights," 56 percent to 34 percent.

[burnsei sensei]

1. Abraham Lincoln was a moderate and a centrist in his own time.

It's entirely likely that he would be a Democrat.
The Republicans are quite extreme now. Took them about 40 years to get there.
They're going the way of the Whigs because they've lost the issues.