It is perhaps ironic that yesterday I quoted Lincoln regarding his need as the nation’s leader to act without malice even during the height of the Civil War, because Tony Snow took it upon himself to compare George W. Bush to Lincoln explicitly on the Colbert Report:
COLBERT: Latest polls have his approval rating at 19 percent, which is low for a President but very high for a fetish.
SNOW: Ouch. … They actually hated Truman. They hated Lincoln. Lincoln as late as late-1864 was telling his guys to get ready the next incoming administration of George McClellan.
This appears to be the new talking point of the Bushies, identifying George W. Bush, the most wretched mangler of the English language and the progenitor of the doctrine of preventive wars against anyone he feels, in his sole determination as Commander-in Chief, deserves the destruction of their society and the permanent occupation of their country by American forces, with perhaps the most eloquent, and the most important President in our history. Lincoln, who was responsible more than any other for ending the evil institution of slavery, and whose efforts literally reshaped the United States of America into the form we see today, though it has taken over a century to fully realize his vision.
Yes Tony, Lincoln was hated. He was hated by the the literal and spiritual ancestors of the same people who today are Bush’s last true believers. The people who still cherish their Confederate heritage and want to fly the Confederate Flag (or place it on their personalized license plates) to remind us all of that treasonous rebellion that led to over 600,000 American deaths. Lincoln, who agonized over every person who was killed or maimed in that horrible war, whose suffering was palpable on his face to all who saw him, and who spent many hours reviewing the cases of soldiers condemned to be shot for desertion, pardoning most of them, is just like George W. Bush, who says he sleeps very well at night despite knowing that his war has led to the death of at least hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, the ethnic cleansing of Iraq, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 to 5 million internal and external refugees who suffer in poverty and untold misery. The same Bush who spent little if any time reviewing requests for clemency from execution, and who publicly mocked the the pleas of Karla Faye Tucker for clemency.
Lincoln was hated by bigots, racists and slave holders who couldn’t see that the words “all men are created equal” applied to human beings they considered nothing more than property to be bought and sold like hogs and cattle. Ultimately he was murdered by a man, John Wilkes Booth, who was so offended that Lincoln planned to give “niggers” citizenship and the right to vote that he felt justified in carrying out the assassination of our greatest President.
Bush is hated, because his values are diametrically opposed to those of Lincoln as is his personal character, by anyone with any semblance of decency or a sense of morality. Lincoln sought to heal the wounds of partisan divide and create a new and better nation, one more aligned with the ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence. Bush has sought to increase the partisan divide in our country, demonizing all his political opponents, from Democrats in Congress to antiwar activists, from gays seeking equal rights to African Americans and Latinos seeking to exercise their right to vote, all in pursuit of raw political power for his party, but most of all for himself.
But other than that, yeah, they have a lot in common.
