Protectionism, nationalized money supply, the crony capitalism of corporate welfare, income taxation, military conscription, huge public debt, waging war over tax collection, shutting down opposition newspapers, suspension of Habeas Corpus, interfering with elections, imprisoning duly elected state government representatives, deporting opposition members of the national legislature, intentionally waging war on innocent civilians in your own country and killing tens of thousands of them, promising to enshrine slavery in the Constitution; shooting military conscripts who desert, centralizing all political power in the central government, creating a giant military-industrial complex . . .
These are a few characteristics of the man who Lincoln cultist Alan Guelzo says was a classical liberal — Abe Lincoln — in the current issue of National Review Online. Guelzo is neither a historian nor an economist by formal education, so I suppose that can explain his confusion. Either that or he is lying through his teeth.
Lincoln was the exact opposite of a classical liberal, as defined in Ludwig von Mises great classic, Liberalism.
8:49 am on February 13, 2011
