Adam Young is right in his post about the source of centralized governmental power in the U.S. The bedrock of Lincoln’s philosophy of government was that the union was not created by the states when they ratified the Constitution but was somehow mysteriously and mystically created by “the whole people.” No such thing as state sovereignty ever existed, he said in what Donald Livingston termed Lincoln’s “spectacular lie.” The truth is, the “whole people” had nothing whatsoever to do with the creation of the American union.
Consequently, he made the case for centralized power and behaved like a dictator while in office. He reinvented American govenment by claiming it was based on democracy (“of the people, by the people, for the people”).
“The people” never rule in a democracy, of course; they are ruled by whatever small elite controls the government. The elite then claimes to rule in the name of “the whole people.” This is one of the cornerstones of Straussian Lincoln worship. Pay attention to Straussians like Alan Keyes and the Claremontistas and you will hear the “whole people” nonsense over and over. These neocons worship “executive power” in the name of “democracy” because they think they can manipulate the powers that be to pursue their personal agendas.
Adam is also correct about the nutty Teddy Roosevelt. He idolized Lincoln, invoked his name in speeches, “justified” killing some 200,000 Filipinos on the grounds that “that’s what Lincoln would have done”, and even kept a lock of Abe’s hair that was given to him by John Hay, Lincoln’s personal secretary.
5:05 pm on January 22, 2004
