Quote:
Originally posted by Rodeo
Pat's correct.
I don't see how "the conservatives" support giving the executive this extraordinary power over our lives.
But today's conservatives don't seem to mind unlimited and unprecedented federal power over the people.
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The Republicans today, and the first Republicans of Lincoln's day were not conservatives in any measurable way.
They wanted a unitary presidency who could define words to mean anything. They wanted a Supreme Court that would decide that it was the sole arbiter of the meaning of the Constitution so that the US government could use that as a method of granting itself huge chunks of power not actually granted by the words of the Constitution nor in the writings of those who wrote and approved the document. Lincoln suspended habeus corpus and arrested and detained over 30,000 vocal opponents of his policies, many were tortured, and many others died of neglect and disease at the infamous Fort Lafayette in New York. It was a gulag for civilians. See
Lincoln's Wrath: Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scoundrels and a President's Mission to Destroy the Press by Jeffrey Manber, Neil Dahlstrom. Neocon authors today use
Lincoln's mass arrests and imprisonments as justification for the same actions today, including arresting anti-war congressmen, which Lincoln did.
The Whig/Republicans wanted high tariffs, corporate welfare, a huge military, and endless government works and programs. They have exactly the same programs today.
We all live with their legacy everyday, and for what appears to be well into the future.
It looks pretty dismal.