July 31, 2019
Page 9
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O PINION
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Can the Party of Lincoln Be Racist? Absolutely
The Great Emancipator was an open white supremacist
t rACey l. r ogers
Republicans have a go-to
line when it comes to de-
flecting charges of racism:
We’re the party of Lincoln!
For instance, after Pres-
ident Trump spewed divi-
sive, racist rhetoric toward
Democratic Reps. Alexan-
dria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan
Omar, and Rashida Tliab, Republican House
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had a ready
response: “We are the party of Lincoln.” Any
suggestion that the president was being racist
was “politics,” he claimed.
To me, McCarthy’s response confirmed
what we’ve known all along: The Republican
Party is filled with racists.
Republicans almost uniformly failed to re-
ject Trump’s racist tweets. Instead, Rep. Ralph
Abraham (R-LA) said that he would person-
ally “pay for the congresswomen’s tickets to
leave this country.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-KY) stated flat out that the president was
“not a racist,” while Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK)
joined this collective shrug by saying, “I don’t
see these as racial remarks.”
In a united front to defend the president,
the entire Republican Party deflected blame
to their “socialist colleagues,” and objected
by
to a House resolution condemning Trump’s
comments. Only four Republicans voted with
Democrats to pass it.
Yes, the Republican Party is showing itself
to be the Party of Lincoln, all right. Not when
it comes to Lincoln’s strong moral code and
supposed conviction that all men were created
equal. But definitely when it comes to Lin-
coln’s personal racism.
Let’s not forget that the “Great Emancipa-
tor” himself was openly racist.
Unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln perpetuat-
ed the myth of white superiority throughout
his entire political career, spewing the same
kind of racism that is alive and well in the Re-
publican Party of today.
While Lincoln was vocal in his opposition
to slavery, he also believed that blacks should
be sent to Liberia — in Africa — because he
did not believe freed blacks should live among
whites in the United States.
What’s more, even though he held the con-
viction that all men, including blacks, “had the
right to improve their condition in society and
enjoy the fruits of their labor,” Lincoln didn’t
think blacks should have the same social and
political rights as white people.
In fact, during the fourth Lincoln-Douglas
debate in 1854, Lincoln plainly stated: “I am
not, nor ever have been, in favor of bring-
ing about in any way the social and political
equality of the white and black races.” He
continued that “while they do remain togeth-
er, there must be the position of superior and
inferior, and I as much as any other man am in
favor of having the superior position assigned
to the white race.”
One might dare argue that Lincoln himself
was a white nationalist, and the apple doesn’t
fall too far from the tree. Trump’s tweets were
widely praised by open white nationalists —
and then condoned by nearly the entire Re-
publican Party.
What does set the party of Lincoln apart
from today’s Republicans, however, is that
Lincoln at least strived to keep the Union in-
tact. While his Emancipation Proclamation
was politically motivated, it was a risky strate-
gy, nonetheless, to keep the nation undivided.
That’s not what we’re seeing from this admin-
istration.
Slavery may have formally ended in 1865.
But in 2019, the leader of the free world has
the support of the Republican Party to send
all black and brown people, be they asylum
seekers or members of Congress born in this
country who carry U.S. citizenship, back from
whence they came.
It makes me wonder, whose party is it now?
Tracey L. Rogers is an entrepreneur and
activist living in Northern Virginia. This op-
ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.
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