Revisiting Lincoln's words from 1861....timely, cogent and urgent!

 In his historic novel, Love is Eternal, Irving Stone writes poignant and relevant and incisive words words, attributing them to Lincoln, speaking to his wife, Mary. This scene occurs shortly after one of his most trusted generals, John C. Freemont, whom Lincoln had appointed to build an army in Missouri, had issued a proclamation that the slaves of all those persons in Missouri who had taken up arms against the government were emancipated and free. Of course, while holding steadfast to the view that to emancipate slaves would assure the secession of the South, and to extend slavery north of the Mason Dixon Line would enrage the North, Lincoln had attempted to chart a ‘middle course’ in the vowed hope and conviction that, given the evil of slavery, it would eventually evaporate on its own ‘petard’ as it were.

Here are those words of Lincoln:

For my part, Mary, I consider the central idea pervading this struggle is not slavery but the necessity that is upon us to prove that popular government is not an absurdity. We must settle once and for all whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose. If we fail it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves. Takng the government as we found it, we will see if the majority can preserve it; that I what we mut never forget: that this new and marvelous democratic form of government, our last best hope on earth, shall not be destroyed. It may seem selfish to put the Union ahead of freeing the slaves; yet if democracy is destroyed, there will be no way for any people anywhere to achieve freedom. (Irving Stone, Love is Eternal, pps. 370-371)

Some 165 years later, these words, from an historically revered president famous for his signing of the Emancipation Declaration, seek resonance among the majority of Americans currently desperate to preserve the Union, in the face of existential threats from within. Without the Union, currently clearly in the sights of those who have announced their determination to deconstruct the established state and the destruction of democracy, ‘there will be no way for any people anywhere to achieve freedom.’

The tension between national perspectives and global perspectives, within the United States is under dire threat. Ultra-nationalism, under several ‘hats’ all of them red, has resulted in an undercutting of NATO, and withdrawal from global trade agreements, a withdrawal from support for Ukraine, and also from U.S foreign aid programs, from environmental protections, from social and health care programs, the dismantling of the Department of Education, and apparently the new immunity of the president under the seal of the Supreme Court. At the same time, under false and newspeak justifications, the National Guard is already occupying the streets of the capital, Washington, D.C. with imminent threat to extend that program to Chicago, Baltimore, New Orleans  and other targeted “Blue” states. Jerrymandering by Republicans in Texas, in pursuit of 5 new districts favourable for Republicans, as well as other Republican states, serves as preparation for the Republicans to hold both House and Senate in the 2026 elections. It is neither a stretch nor inconceivable to suggest an elimination of the 2028 presidential election, should the current occupant of the Oval Office still be there, so that he can achieve his ultimate ‘mimicry’ of Xi Jin Ping, lifetime dictatorship.

Another of Lincoln’s famous lines, repeated on many occasions, is A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union  to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. (Houe Divided Speech, 1858)

There are significant differences between the situation Lincoln faced, and the current dilemma. First, slavery had a history of many decades, even former presidents had owned slaves, and the south continued to honour and value their tradition of slaves on plantations owned by white land-owners and worked by slaves. There was already a legislated and understood ‘line’ separating slave states from new territories to the north, the Mason-Dixon Line. The Lincoln ‘vision’ of slavery slowly dying of its own exhaustion is not applicable to the current malaise infecting the nation. The lines between supporters of the current administration and those opposed to it, run down the kitchen tables and dining room tables, the holes on multiple golf courses, between various colleges and universities, between various religious entities, and also between races. White supremacy, in the 21^st century tends to find different ethnicities, as well as genders and economic strata, both the include and to exclude.

Nevertheless, the notion of continuing to wage a political battle, really now a war, using the methods, tactics, perspectives and strategies of those battles previously fought for control of The White House, The House of Representatives, and the Senate, and expect to be successful can only be described as an approach adequate for a blind, deaf and ‘encaved’ group of men and women who have apparently been sequestered away from reality for decades.

The whole orientation of the Democratic Party, if it is to continue to offer ‘release from the chains that bind the nation, has to be reframed. And, logical, rational and coherent, unified arguments appropriate for a court room, or a television debate or even a town hall, in the past, are obsolete and clearly counterintuitive. Similarly, criticisms based on high moral standards, high ethical expectations, even legal expectations no longer have the weight of their previous heft. Even continuous documentation of the millions of protesters gathering, as if gathering for the television cameras, while perhaps personally satisfying and demonstrating a degree of anger, commitment and solidarity, in pursuit of the overthrow of this current government, is basically a theatre of the choir, for the choir, in the hope that it will inspire other choirs of dissenters.

Even creative and satiric mimics of presidential ‘tweets’ on X, while comedic, interesting and eye-candy for those tuned in, are never going to have the impact desired and sought by those behind the campaigns.  While Lincoln averred from war, as did Mendela, for as long as possible, when war came, they recognized and  reluctantly took up the task. I happened to catch a few moments recently of the former Vice-president, Al Gore, whose voice, tone, temperament and anger nearly blew the speakers on my phone. Also, recently there are a few podcasts urging Democrats to take the gloves off, and to not merely roll up their sleeves but rather to begin to strategize, as if they were fully engaged in the political equivalent of a military war.

The technology has changed; the mind-set needs to ‘get up to speed’ in so many different ways…and the time is very short.

Democrats are running behind Republicans in current opinion polls; That is not only a disgrace; it is appalling to the rest of the world. Establish a lie-detector website, even a television broadcast centre; there is more than enough material to feed such a system for decades. Set up an alternative to Project 2025 with authentic thought leaders, philosophers, scientists, and sociologists, legal minds, and get busy funding the war on the current cancer.

It is a cancer that is, every hour and every day, eating away at the very essential organs of the body politic. And those organs need every other organ sill functioning to begin the reclamation process that needs to follow this scourge.

The U.S. is not Gaza, nor is it Ukraine. However, the enemies of these two peoples and regions are no more lethal, dangerous and malicious that the enemies in those ‘war zones.’

It may seem extremely presumptuous and arrogant for a Canadian to write these words, from a location just north of the border. However, please forgive my impatience. Canadian workers and their families are already facing a winter of no jobs, potential retraining and considerable loss of both dignity and self-respect, for having done nothing to warrant their plight. This ‘war’ inside the United States cannot be contained with the borders of that nation; it is a global phenomenon, begging, just as in the environment, begging for international action on a collaborative, and urgent basis.

Foreseeing rising death tolls, rising disease tolls, failing counter measures and failing international aid programs as well as rising temperatures and rising costs of living in a world already facing historic levels of poverty, racism, bigotry, and isolation, reads like a scene from some new version of Dante’s Inferno. The pain and anguish in such fictional pieces as Handmaid’s Tale, will seem like cigarette smoke when compared with the global clouds of lethal air poisoning spewing from smoke-stacks in various quarters, not to mention the continuing self-declared impunity of tyrants like Putin, Netanyahu, and even the leaders of both North Korea and China, not to mention the wannabe imitator of them all….sitting in the Oval Office.

While Canada seeks new and receptive trade and security partners, she also faces considerable turbulence right here at home, for which there is absolutely no legitimate justification. And the impositions of the various burdens not only on the poorest of the world’s peoples, but also on the American citizens thesmselves, is only going to increase so long as this cabal holds power in Washington.

Where are the Sewards, the other members of Lincoln’s cabinet, and also the Lincolns of the 21^st century, who can not only ‘see’ the dangers, but also see the need for urgent, and thougtful and courageous and even cunning measures to disarm this menace?