The neocon crybabies lke Dennis Praeger who are upset about youth who criticize Cheney (but not youth who criticize Kerry) are once again following in the footsteps of Honest Abe, the political descendant of John Adams and his Alien and Sedition Acts. Abe imprisoned tens of thousands of Northern political dissenters, shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers, and imprisoned their editors and owners. In an LRC article entitled “The Neocon Crusade to Imprison and Execute Congressional War Opponents” I write about how neocons are seriously discussing doing these things, and worse, today, using the “sainted” Lincoln as their precedent.
Abe was at his lying and deceiving best when confronted with criticism of his deportation of his most vocal Democratic critic, Congressman Clement Vallandigham of Ohio. The excuse he gave was to ask, “Must I shoot a poor boy” who goes AWOL from the army, while “not touching a hair on the head” of the “wily agitator” who encourages him to do so?
This was his way of using tongue-twisting, Clintonian doubletalk to explain why we should not allow free speech in America as long as he was in power. An early Patriot Act, in other words.
2:21 pm on August 3, 2004
