Abraham Lincoln

Donald Trump Implodes At Black Journalists’ Gathering In Chicago

Donald Trump shocked the National Association of Black Journalists Convention in Chicago yesterday, with his unhinged behavior towards the three black women journalists who questioned him about his stands on race, and on his Vice Presidential runningmate, JD Vance.

Trump was nasty and abusive in his utterances about Kamala Harris, accusing her of claiming to be Black when he asserted, wrongfully, that all along, she identified as Asian Indian in ethnicity.

The concept of Harris being “mixed race” is not something that should cause controversy, as 10.2 percent of the population in the 2020 Census self-identified as such.

That has nothing to do with Harris’s qualifications to be President, but once again, Trump played the “race card”, as he always has done for many years.

Supposedly, Trump was trying to gain Black support for his Presidential candidacy, but his outragous behavior does not promote such gains.

Trump’s claim to be the best President for Black Americans since Abraham Lincoln is preposterous, ridulous, and insulting!

It is clear that Donald Trump is terrified of the growing support for Kamala Harris, and is unable to figure out how to attack her, except by personal and racist insults.

His racism and misogyny are beyond the pale, and it makes one wonder why anyone with any intelligence would still support him for President!

Kamala Harris Begins Her Presidential Campaign Against Evil Of Donald Trump And JD Vance

It is a bit more than 24 hours since Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race, but already his Vice President, Kamala Harris, is gaining widespread support for the nomination, and there has been a great surge in campaign contributions of nearly $81 million in one day!

Harris seems highly likely to have no real competition for the nomination a month from now, so the question of who should be her running mate will be most important.

There are a wealth of possible alternatives, with six candidates discussed by this author and blogger two days ago.

At this moment, speculation is centering around Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, but with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear also being mentioned.

One thing for sure: A younger, new generation of leadership is challenging the opponent, Donald Trump, who is elderly, clearly mentally deranged in his statements, including nastiness toward Joe Biden, rather than grace as he leaves the fray.

His running mate, JD Vance, is a threat to the nation long term with his connection to Project 2025, which would destroy American democracy and the rule of law!

So the battle has begun for the future of the nation, and it cannot afford to be lost, anymore than the case with Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940!

The Republican Party Is Dead; It Is Now The Trumplican Party!

It is now official!

The Republican Party has died at the age of 170!

Born in Ripon, Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, as an antislavery and antislavery expansion party, it passed away on July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as Donald Trump selected Ohio Senator JD Vance as his Vice Presidential running mate!

The legacy of the Republican Party, and its great Presidential luminaries—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan–has been repudiated by selecting the future potential leader of the party, JD Vance!

He rejects the foreign policy principles the party pursued in the years since 1945, and with the “mainstream” Republicans of the Reagan-Bush era totally repudiated in domestic affairs by the era of Donald Trump.

It can now be renamed the TRUMPLICAN Party!

Republican Party Destroying Its Future

While there are a small number of Republicans who are refusing to support Donald Trump in his Presidential campaign, the vast majority have decided to drink the Kool Aid and are sacrificing their principles, honor, and historical reputation in backing a convicted felon.

The hypocrisy is massive, and they have no sense of shame, ethics or morals.

The day will come when they will regret their decision to work against democracy and the rule of law, and they will go down as the villains who destroyed the party of Lincoln, TR, Ike, Reagan, the Bushes, Romney, McCain, and many moderate, mainstream Governors and Senators of recent decades.

A true, principled conservative party will rise from the ashes of the 170 years old party, now in its death knell!

FDR Death, And Harry Truman Succession To The Presidency Commemorated!

Sixty nine years ago, in the midst of late stages of World War II, the longest serving American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, passed away at the age of 63 in Warm Springs, Georgia.

The impact of FDR in his years in office, and the continued significance of his policies and actions, reverberates in America seven decades later, and he is usually ranked second or third among all Presidents in polls and surveys of Presidential scholars.

Serving more than 12 years and starting a fourth term in office, he had a far greater impact in many ways than Abraham Lincoln, who is usually ranked as the greatest American President.

FDR’s “New Deal” still affects America, and his leadership in World War II was crucial for the survival of democracy in the nation and the world.

The death of FDR also led to the Presidency of Harry Truman, tremendously underrated throughout his Presidency and for a generation after his retirement.

But once Truman passed away, recognition of his courageous, principled leadership emerged, and now he is ranked in the top five or six of all Presidents!

His continuation and expansion of the New Deal through the Fair Deal, and his strong leadership in the emerging Cold War made his Presidency extremely significant!

APSA Presidential Greatness Poll 2024: The Next President On Mt. Rushmore, And Most Polarizing And Least Polarizing Presidents!

The American Political Science Association Presidential Greatness Poll 2024 also asks participants who they would consider should join George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt on the Mt. Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota.

The overwhelming choice was Franklin D. Roosevelt by a wide margin (65.4%), with Barack Obama second with 11%, and a three way tie at 4% among Dwight D. Eisenhower, James Madison, and John F. Kennedy.

And the most Polarizing Presidents were Donald Trump, Andrew Jackson, Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush in that order, with the least Polarizing Presidents being George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, Franklin D.Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy in that order.

APSA Presidential Greatness Poll 2024–The Bottom 10 Presidents

The American Political Science Association Presidential Greatness Poll 2024 makes clear that Donald Trump is the absolute bottom of all 45 Presidents, below James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison, and Warren G. Harding, all with very low total scores, but Trump with a final score of 10.92 as compared to Buchanan’s 16.71, Johnson’s 21.56, Pierce’s 24.6, Harrison’s 26.01, and Harding with 27.76.

The other four at the bottom, numbers 36 to 39 in order, are Herbert Hoover, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Millard Fillmore.

Notice that of these 10 Presidents at the bottom, four are the Presidents preceding Abraham Lincoln and one following him.

The others are Harding and Hoover from the 1920s; and one month President William Henry Harrison and his successor John Tyler in the early 1840s, when the Presidency came under attack due to the first Vice President succeeding the President due to death of the incumbent.

And then there is Donald Trump, who ranks last for those participants in the poll who are identified as Democrats, Independents, Liberals, and Moderates; and even for those who identify themselves as Republicans or Conservatives, Trump only rises to number 43, with Buchanan and Johnson rated below Trump by Republicans, and Buchanan and Pierce rated below Trump by Conservatives.

Also note that the only Presidents of this group who served a full term were Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Herbert Hoover, and Donald Trump.

APSA Presidential Greatness Poll: Top 10 Presidents In 2024 Survey

The American Political Science Association Presidential Greatness project has published its findings, just in time for Presidents’ Day today.

This is the first in a number of days of discussion of the results.

The top 10 Presidents in the Survey demonstrates the rise of Democratic Presidents, who now number five of the group—with Franklin D. Roosevelt as number 2, behind Abraham Lincoln, surpassing George Washington who is now number 3; Harry Truman remaining number 6; Barack Obama amazingly rising to number 7, the highest he has been on any Presidential scholarly survey; and Lyndon B. Johnson surpassing John F. Kennedy, with Johnson number 9 and Kennedy number 10.

Additionally in the top ten is Truman successor Dwight D. Eisenhower as number 8, making five presidents in a row from FDR through LBJ part of the top ten.

Theodore Roosevelt as number 4 and Thomas Jefferson as number 5 remain consistently in their positions in the top 10.

So besides five Democrats in the top 10, there are three Republicans (Lincoln, TR, Ike), along with Federalist George Washington and Democratic-Republican Jefferson.

The “Lost Cause” After Civil War Again Rears Its Ugly Head In 2024!

Hard to believe, but the American Civil War (1861-1865) continues to divide America more than a century and a half after its impact on America!

Nikki Haley has trouble realizing that slavery was the major cause of the Civil War.

Ron DeSantis, when a high school teacher two decades ago, told his students that slavery was NOT the major cause of the Civil War.

Donald Trump tells us that Abraham Lincoln should have negotiated with slave owners, as it might have prevented the Civil War, and that Lincoln would not be remembered if it was not for the bloodshed of that war.

The “Lost Cause”, that of “states rights”, was used in the South to propagandize for generations the fact that the South had lost the war, and only was finally overcome in most circles since the 1960s, but now the new MAGA Republican propaganda is reviving the old myth, which justified Jim Crow segregration, lynching, and denial of basic civil rights to African Americans for a century after the Civil War.

Leave it to those who attack DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), and the nation will be going backwards in understanding of our history, and promoting racial reconciliation, so the battle against the “Lost Cause” must be waged!

2024 Presidential Election Crucial As Were 1864 And 1964 Elections, And They Were Election Landslides!

One could argue that every Presidential Election is significant in some shape or form, but certain elections stand out as turning points in the promotion of American democracy.

Such are the Presidential Elections of 1864 and 1964, and now moving forward, 2024!

In all three, the sustaining of American democracy was crucial, and in the first two cases, the results, after much concern, were massive landslides, hopefully setting the scene for 2024!

In 1864, Republican Abraham Lincoln was running for reelection in the midst of the American Civil War, with his opponent being General George McClellan, who was resentful of his firing for poor performance from Union Army leadership, and represented to many the Confederate hope of pulling out victory late in the Civil War.

Lincoln was so concerned that victory was unattainable, that he decided to replace Vice President Hannibal Hamlin with a Southern Loyalist Democrat Andrew Johnson, and the Republicans invited War Democrats into the party by changing their name to the National Union Party.

The end result was a landslide with Lincoln winning all but three states, winning 55 percent of the vote, and an Electoral College majority of 212-21!

A century later, President Lyndon B. Johnson, having succeeded to the Presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy less than a year earlier, faced the most right wing Republican contender for the Presidency in modern times, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who advocated ending the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, including Social Security, and also opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Johnson went on to a landslide victory, winning 61.1 percent of the popular vote, the all time high, and 44 of 50 states and 486-52 in the Electoral College, but with five Southern states going to Goldwater, the beginning of the political realignment that has made the South solidly Republican ever since, with only a few exceptions when Democrats nominated Southerners for the Presidency, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Johnson went on to promote the Great Society, a massive increase in government programs, way beyond the New Deal of FDR.

Now in 2024, with the Republican Party being the most extreme right wing since Goldwater, and arguably more so, Joe Biden faces a challenge not only on a personal level, but also on overcoming the menace of Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans, who have repudiated the original basis of the Republican Party’s founding, opposing slavery and its expansion, and instead promoting racism and nativism 170 years after the origins of the party in Michigan and Wisconsin in 1854!