Sam Tanenhaus says that the party of Lincoln has become the party of Calhoun. I wonder whether that is fair to Calhoun. He was, after all, by all accounts a very intelligent man. Either way, the Democrats have clearly become the stewards of Lincoln’s policies. The last connection between the modern GOP and the Republican Party of Lincoln’s day is support for rich northern industrialists and financiers. But that connection is eroding daily as the Republicans refuse to finance infrastructure projects and let their anti-tax ideology get in the way of sound cyclical economic policy. Once the sequester kicks in, even the defense industry is going to break with the Republicans.
