Re-posted with permission from Edgardo Peregrino. Original can be found on his Facebook note
After reading Thomas DiLorenzo’s The Real Lincoln, I have noticed how the Republican Party has not changed in the last 150 years and have refused to embrace change. Obviously the reason I don’t bash the Democrats is because they are statists at heart and you don’t have to read between the lines to know that they support a centralized state. However, the Republicans pretend to be for limited government but history and their actions show otherwise.
If you look at history, the origins of our current government goes all the way back to before the Civil War when Henry Clay supported what he called an “American System.” The three planks were protectionism, central banking, and corporate subsidies. Lincoln was an avid supporter of this system and lambasted his opponents like Andrew Jackson who refused to abide by any of the planks. As a Whig and then a Republican Lincoln admired Clay and even spoke at his funeral in 1852. When he was elected as president he applied the “American system” to cripple the South, especially on protectionist tariffs. He used tariffs to destroy the economy of the South which heavily relied on trade and continued to tax the South into submission. The Confederate Constitution explicitly banned protectionist tariffs and internal improvements, which the Founding Fathers spoke out against. Lincoln provided subsidies for railroads, which had been banned in almost every state by 1860 because they saw what happened when government got involved in business. Today, the Republican Party still maintains the very system that has lasted for 150 years. Regarding central banking, Lincoln was an advocate of monopolized money and attacked the idea of sound currency. The Republicans still support protectionism through NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, WTO, and other treaties which are nothing more than protectionism in another name. They also support protectionism against immigrants because they do not want them to compete in the market place so they enact draconian laws and call it immigration control. They do pay lip service to those who want the Federal Reserve but they do not dare to abolish it because they need to fund the military empire and as well as the corporate subsidies. Speaking of corporate subsidies, the Republicans still support corporate subsidies to Health Insurance Companies, Big Oil, multinational corporations, and corporations like Monsanto that have an influence on our government. Let’s not forget taxation as the Republicans still support taxation as a way to plunder from the people or the fact that they are perpetuating the very system of taxation Lincoln created during the war. If Lincoln was alive today, he would have been proud to see how the Republican Party maintained the very system he supported and created.
With regards to our foreign policy, the Republicans still support the military empire that was envisioned by Lincoln and the old Republican Party. After the Civil War, General Grant wanted to invade Mexico and began to irritate England once again and eventually William McKinley who served under Lincoln as a major started the Spanish-American War in 1898 and kick-started our path towards becoming a military empire. Today, the Republican Party still supports that empire and is not expected to change anytime soon. They supported war with Iraq, Afghanistan and are eager to go to war with Iran and any other country that did not attack us or pose a threat to us. The Republican Party has remained firm in their pursuit of a much larger military empire and will use the media to attack those who want to return to what Ron Paul calls a humble foreign policy.
Then, there comes the issue of secession, states’ rights and nullification. Lincoln started the lie that secession was illegal and that the Union created the states, the same argument made by Hitler in Mein Kampf. Lincoln’s war ensured that the right of secession to serve as a check on government power was gone and generations after bought the lie that secession is treason. However, the Declaration of Independence was essentially secession from the British Empire and the Founders like Jefferson and Madison were strong supporters of that principle. Even before the Civil War, New England threatened to secede due to Jefferson’s actions such as the Embargo and the Louisiana Purchase and even refused to send troops during the War of 1812. Many states recognized the right to secession and some who did not opposed government force against those who did secede. Lincoln destroyed states’ rights, nullification, and secession with the war and many historians to this day perpetuate the lie that secession is a myth. Today, the Republican Party pays lip service to such ideas (i.e. Rick Perry) and there are genuine constitutionalists who support such ideas (i.e. Ron Paul, Debra Medina). Of course, the Republicans support centralization of power and while they talk a good game about state sovereignty, their actions speak otherwise. If a state wanted to nullify the Patriot Act or any legislation that the Republicans supported, do you really think that the Republicans would support that? Of course not, the Republicans love Government and will stop at nothing to gain power.
Of course, I forgot to mention the Republican Party’s flagrant disregard for constitutional rights or rather natural rights. During the Civil War, Lincoln and his party suspended habeas corpus (Bush did that too), confiscated private property waged war on civilians, burned down cities, and imprisoned those who disagreed with him. Today, the Republicans gave us eminent domain, the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and other legislation that violated our liberties.
As history tells us, the Republican Party has not changed in the last 150 years and has remained true to its statist principles. They can pretend to advocate for limited government, but their actions show a completely different story. The Republican Party have no interest in free markets, free trade, sound money, a humble foreign policy or any issue that maximize liberty. They will continue to centralize power no matter what and as long as people are stuck in the false left-right paradigm, the status quo will remain in tact until we recognize that it is people, not government that make this country. So again, the Republican Party is the Party of Lincoln, basically the party that supports centralization of power and it will continue to do so.
Nobel Peace Prize Laurette Barack Obama is determined for the European invasion of Palestine to end in reconciliation. 
