Why does the GOP think that by saying they are the party of Lincoln,

[ncteechur]

that will do so much to draw African-American voters to their side?

I'm not a black voter but would like to hear from some regarding this sound byte. Does saying they are the party of Lincoln make their repressive policies over the years OK?

Ken Mehlman is supposingly going to say something like that at the NAACP convention. Saw it on LBN.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. They've been saying it for a while.

It's not working.

[Tweed]

2. Great African-American quote

A leading African-American said during the depression that fellow African-Americans should vote for FDR. In his words, "You can turn the your portrait of Lincoln to the wall. The debt has been paid." That was in the 30's, almost a century ago too.

[jmcon007]

3. Actually, it's probably insulting for a lot of African Americans to hear

the Lincoln reference from Republicans, because about the only time they mention Abe is when the audience is predominantly black.
The obvious irony is that the Emancipation Proclamation is probably why the Republicans are cool towards old Abe.

[whitebear]

7. Back in Lincoln's day the GOP wasn't as corrupt yet

They began as the Democratic republicans.Back then they told Abe that if he freed the slaves he would get their vote.All the blacks in the ex-slave states were republican for years until it began to get so corrupt.The carpetbaggers were republicans and for a long time the south hated them.Now a lot of the south are republicans.Don't ask me how they made such a turn-around.:dem:

[amber dog democrat]

9. the turn around happend in the 60s

when Southern Dixiecrats abandoned the Democratic party due to a resentment and resistance to the Civil Rights movment and de segregation. Under Trueman, and somewhat under Eisenhower, but certainly under Kennedy and LBJ, more of the Southern whites felt more ideologially comfortable as Republicans.

I guess they can overlook Lincoln ' cepting when he is needed at an NAACP speech.

[LiberalFighter]

17. Democratic republicans?? Please explain

[DanCa]

4. Lincoln has nothing in common with today's gop

Time recently did a story honest abe. They labeled him as a moderate. Personaly I would label lincoln as a liberterian who didnt insult anyone.

[HardWorkingDem]

5. Correct me if I'm wrong....

but during Lincoln's time, wasn't the Republican Party actually the early formation of the Democratic Party?

Didn't it have to do something with Whigs and such? That is the way I've always been told....that back then, Lincoln really had more ideals that are now in tune with the modern Democratic Party...

[Celeborn Skywalker]

6. I don't think so.

I think the modern Democratic party started around the time of Andrew Jackson. I would say the Republicans were formed ideologically close to the Whigs. Although the repubs were more racially progressive than the Democrats in the late 1800's, they still represented big business primarily and did nothing for the common man.

[davepc]

13. The Republican party was a loose coalition of...

"Free Soilers", Anti-immigration/Catholic/Irish forces (the know-nothings), abolitionists and...wait for it...anti-coporate interests (the barnburners).

Politics and strange bedfellows and all that.

[LiberalFighter]

20. The Democrat-Republican Party was the beginning of the Democratic Party

Lincoln was a Whig before it dissolved then became a Republican.

In Lincoln's 2nd term the Republican Party decided to call themselves the National Union Party for that election.

[wli]

8. he'll get laughed off the stage

These thugs are goose-stepping KKK/Aryan Nation wannabes and everyone knows it. I frankly have no idea how these farces amount to anything more than picketing the stage about the overtly racist oppression of the mass imprisonment crime against humanity the cryptofascists are perpetrating and their role (alongside Latin Americans) as modern-day Mamluks.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

10. The African-Americans I've spoken to about this

certainly aren't fooled by it. Racism is a big vote-winner for the GOP and most people know it.

[hayu_lol]

11. Today's Repugnants are really more like the ...

Know Nothing Party. Worth a google run to find out about the Lincoln era Know Nothings.

Made up predominantly of young adults, scions of wealthy families. Does that sound familiar?

[Anarcho-Socialist]

12. I agree

Notice that when GOPers are speaking to predominantly white audiences they're "the party of Ronald Reagan".

[mandomom]

14. It's the inversion, stupid.

When Mehlman et al pull this line on them, why is it that no one in the media mentions that those who were republicans then are democrats now. The parties essentially took a figure 8 turn and exchanged party principles. Republicans of Lincoln's time turned and ran when it appeared the southern niceties of slave trading and white imperialism were no longer the banner of Lincoln and his party. Where is the history knowledge with the media hosts and journalists who interview these blatant GOP prevaricatours? And what about our Dem spokesfolks? What's so hard about piping up with FACTS? The current GOP is the party of Lincoln In Name Only. Sheesh.
Anyone?

[Totally Committed]

15. Ever heard the phrase:

"grasping at straws"? It's all they got.

TC

[NVMojo]

16. they are trying to convince us that they aren't LIARS!

[Norquist Nemesis]

18. It's another notch in the Partisan Wedge

My thoughts about this:

When the majority of Americans think of Lincoln, it is in terms of President Abraham Lincoln...not President Lincoln (R). Most Americans also do not have an in-depth knowledge of the history regarding Lincoln or the Republican Party during that era.

They have some overall understanding of the Civil War, that the South wanted to secede/wanted to preserve their way of life (or other explanations), that Lincoln was POTUS during that time, and that Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford Theatre. Beyond that, it's history with little or no inclination to learn the details and read up on.

So, now the Anti-Democratic Party can step to the podium and mouth the words "Lincoln was a Republican", drop a few conflating ideas like...War President, saved the Union (uniter, not divider), Civil Rights, freed the people (freedom)...and VOILA! I'll bet by the time Bush is out in January 2008 he'll be a "Great President just like Abraham Lincoln--the Republican!"

[rasputin1952]

19. Why don't they say they are the Party of Coolidge, Hoover and Nixon?

They tried Teddy Roosevelt, but that bombed out.

Lincoln would be considered a Left Leaning Moderate if he were running today. The only thing that can be remotely considered RW is the "Preservation of the Union" and that is iffy, since those of us on the Left do not think that dissolution of the Union is a good option in any case.

Any comparison to Lincoln falls flat anyway, as he lived in a different time, w/different problems. Lincoln appears to have had great wisdom and insight...something sorely lacking in the current administration in any capacity.

One last item, if Lincoln had lived beyond 1865, Reconstruction would have been vastly different than from what it was destined to be. Lincoln realized that ALL Americans, (Confederates included), needed to heal wounds and come together in a constructive way...those hopes were dashed in Ford's Theater. bush, claiming to be a uniter, has brought this country closer to a Civil War than any president since Lincoln...bush's story is pathetic and will get worse.