Abraham Lincoln fought against ‘political correctness’

The first president elected by the Republican Party fought political correctness during his time.

Professor  in the column Lincoln’s Teaching – and Our Politics writes:

Lincoln famously complained that there was nowhere that people could talk about slavery – they couldn’t talk about it in the churches because “it didn’t belong there.” It was too political, too divisive. And they couldn’t talk about it in politics because it was too explosive. It was a moral and religious question, too unsettling for our politics. It was the gravest issue before us. It was the issue that truly went to the core of the kind of regime we meant to establish and the kind of people we had sought to be. And yet we couldn’t talk about it readily in public.

[Emphasis added]

From the time of Lincoln let’s fast forward to today and Donald J. Trump, the GOP nominee for president of the United States. Professor Arkes wrote:

We bring back here one of the most enduring lessons Lincoln taught, with a problem that persistently haunts our politics: One of the prime tasks of the political man is to teach, through his own, artful example how ordinary people can talk about the issues that truly run to the root. But that presupposes the prior, truly first task. The political man or woman will need to get clear in the first place on the questions that really were central; the questions, as Lincoln said, from which everything else radiated. [Emphasis added]

Trump has been criticized for his lack of “civility.” But is civility a code word for political correctness? Is Trump talking about “issues that truly run to the root”?

Democrats, Republicans and world leaders alike call for Mr. Trump to tone down his rhetoric. The Democrats have called Mr. Trumps comments racist, bigoted and hateful. Some blame the violence seen at Trump rallies on his words. Daily the media bombards us with polls showing the unpopularity of Mr. Trump. However, let is not forget that President Lincoln was also unpopular in his time.

Professor Arkes noted, “That is why, as he [Lincoln] said, that proposition, ‘all men are created equal’ really was the ‘father of all moral principle’ in us. As Lincoln showed, the case in principle for slavery could not be confined to blacks. A government that could accept the slavery of black people could easily begin disfranchising certain classes of whites as well. And with a simple shift of labels, a whole other class of ‘human persons’ can be removed altogether from the circle of ‘rights-bearing beings’.”

“But if a politician uses the N-word, if Donald Trump says a derisive word about women – none of these things has been beneath the notice, and the lingering attention, of the media,” writes Professor Arkes.

Therefore are not topics such as immigration, abortion, women, homosexuality, religion and Islam worthy of public discourse?

In the column Why Morality is the Only Thing We Should Legislate Selwyn Duke writes:

“You can’t legislate morality!” is a common battle cry today.

It’s thought to be a quintessentially American idea, even though the Founding Fathers never expressed such a sentiment. Nor did the early Americans who would unabashedly enforce a biblically based code of morality in their localities, both via social pressure and governmental laws, with transgressors sometimes spending time in stocks — or worse. No, our common battle cry is a modern idea, and one of modernism. It also betrays a fundamental, and dangerous, misunderstanding of law’s nature.

In reality, the only thing we should legislate is morality. The only other option is legislating whims or immorality.

American voters will decide on November 8th if saying things that are unpopular is needed and necessary or if being political correct is the new normal.

As George Orwell noted, “In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Perhaps it is time to stop deceiving ourselves?

2 replies
  1. kevin Wright
    kevin Wright says:

    I would love to have political conversation with you about Mr. Trump. A legitimate political conversation, has to achieve a threshold of honesty, and philosophy. Mr. Trump has never reached that threshold. He has refused it at every occasion. Trump has obvious character flaws. There is a yuge difference between calling the most respected black neurosurgeon in America “like a child molester” and political correctness. If you cannot make this moral distinction, Mr. Swier, then ethics and politics ain’t your bag. The only rational conversation about Trump, is the depths of His madness.

    Reply
    • Dr. Rich Swier
      Dr. Rich Swier says:

      Keven,

      Thanks for reading and commenting on my column.

      Sometimes the truth hurts. People are starving for the truth. Dr. Carson has endorsed Mr. Trump. My take is there will be a place in a Trump administration for Dr. Carson, if he chooses to to accept.

      Sticks and stones may break my bones but political correctness will destroy America.

      Reply

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