I feel like being hard on Democrats today and the inclination may persist. Scott Johnson of Power Line makes an interesting point that I’ve noticed myself. That in terms of its view of humanity, society and politics, there is philosophically little to distinguish the Democrat Party of the pre-Civil War period from its current incarnation.
The great duel between the parties during the late 1850s came down to two individuals – Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas was the “great man” of his day and – under ordinary circumstances – would have been a shoo-in for president in 1860. The times were not ordinary, however.
Douglas was the great expositor of the doctrine of “popular sovereignty”, which in the politics of the day meant that each territory seeking admission to the Union could decide for itself – by popular vote – whether it would be a slave or free state. In practical terms this meant that white people could decide by plebiscite whether black people were fully members of the human race. While Douglas’ position was couched in the laurels of “democracy”, in reality it was an exercise of tribal power by one group over another.
As a devout adherent to the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln believed that people have rights that come from God, not from any act of government or popular will. For Lincoln, “popular sovereignty” was shot-through with a tyrannical principle. And when Lincoln came to public prominence in the late 1850s he publicly opposed his old friend “Judge” Douglas on the basis of eternal principle. In one of his first great speeches opposing Douglas, he stated his view on the protean nature of tyranny and repeated it often:
It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, “You work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.” No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.
As Scott points out, Lincoln knew what he was talking about. And today we face the same eternal principle: whether government grants us our rights or whether they are God’s gift. And today’s Democrats somehow believe that they can take the fruit of our labor and give it to their friends and constituents – and that we are their creatures who are bound to obey.
UPDATE: A great post by Michael Zak at Big Government comparing today’s political turmoil and that which followed passage of Stephen Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska Act.
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