Abe Lincoln and 2024

My wife and I start almost every day with a power walk for an hour or so. After sixty-four years, she didn’t need to hear me pontificate anymore, so we thought, “Let’s listen to audiobooks.” One was Jon Meachem’s And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle (2022), the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 through his leadership during the Civil War, ending with his assassination in 1865.

This book was a good choice and gave us some insights into the man Lincoln and his statesmanship.

We weren’t too far into the book when I realized it correlated with what is happening today. Our country is becoming more polarized, hatred is normalized, and our fragile democracy faces another test.

In Lincoln’s time, the test our country faced was about whether the United States should become the slave capital of the world, as was projected by the South and especially the Deep South, where Black folks were considered savages, less than human even, and were born to be enslaved. People in the South knew that economically their prosperity and future depended on keeping Black people enslaved. They even found justification for their actions in the Bible and considered themselves Christians. They had no qualms about beating them, raping them, selling them, and breaking up families. Churches condoned this behavior, ignoring the fact that Jesus’s agape would never tolerate such abuse. I can hear Jesus shouting, “Woe to you, O slaveholders . . .” but falling on deaf ears, as it so often does.

Today, again, our nation is divided. One group wishes to preserve our delicate democracy and is constantly fighting for freedom and justice for all. Back in Lincoln’s time, it was the Republican Party who were the abolitionists, the exact opposite of where Republicans under Trump are today. The Democrats are the ones pushing for freedom and justice for all, while the Republicans want a White autocracy run by a select few with a lengthy list of those who are excluded.

Back then, the Republicans did not want a war to protect their delicate democracy. Today, the Republicans are the ones who are still hinting at war, if they don’t get their autocracy on November 5, 2024. (See January 6, 2021.)

Those who support this movement are primarily in a cult, pretending they love Jesus and have their God in full support. They manipulate the Bible to justify their position and have no interest in maintaining our democracy, our magnificent Constitution, or our separation of church and state. They just want to be in charge of everything and everyone, including you and me.

The opinions held by the White Christian nationalists of 1860 were so strong that they wanted to succeed and have a war that needlessly killed millions of folks. I have the impression that Republicans today would be willing to start a war if their candidates don’t win the election in November.

Abraham Lincoln never considered himself a religious man, but he attended church with his family because that is what politicians did. However, I also saw him as a spiritual (authentic) being who understood that slavery was evil. Today, I have so many friends who consider themselves spiritual (authentic) but are “None” (no religion). Intuitively, they see the direction that Republicans are going as undemocratic and perverse.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but it also served and continues to serve as a reminder that I, Bil Aulenbach, cannot never stop advocating for our democracy and equality for all humanity, as long as I live.

PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness

Bil

Get my book at Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon!

P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.

3 thoughts on “Abe Lincoln and 2024”

  1. I highly recommend Stephen Spielberg’s 2012 movie “Lincoln”, with Daniel Day Lewis in the title role. Long, but absolutely riveting!

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    • Thanks Don for your comments. Annie and I have been in France but returned for, what I too consider the most important election in my 93 years. We’re hoping our citizens would prefer living in a democracy versu an autocracy but as of tonight 47% are going for a dictatorship. Yokes! About 35% of those folks who hide behind the cloak of Jesus and call themselves Christians because they believe Trump is going to let then establish a theocracy. My conclusion: Religion, especially the fundamentalist kind, is a nice sounding word for “terrorists.” See Xn, Jew, Muslim, Buddhists, Hindus, etc., all of whom seem to have no problem killing in the name their god(s). Maybe religion is the major obstacle to world peace! in 2 days we’re going to have the answer., PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness Bil

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