Red Republicans Revisited–Via The Washington Post

by Al Benson Jr.

Member, Board of Directors, Confederate Society of America

Back in 2007, my friend, Donnie Kennedy and I had our book Red Republicans and Lincoln’s Marxists  published. It got quite a bit of attention and we were pooh-poohed for daring to suggest that the Republicans ever had anything to do with the communists. The fact that those who attacked us had probably never read any of the history was immaterial. In our insane day you don’t have to know the history or facts about anything. All you have to do is accuse someone of something and that is supposed to be enough. You don’t need no stinkin’ evidence, all you gotta do is say it and everyone is supposed to fall in line and believe it.

In 2011 the second edition of our book was published by another published and simply titled Lincoln’s Marxists. We were again castigated by many, some of them on the Left, for producing “propaganda” about how bad communism was.

The mainstream media in this country has shown a rare display of ramped up speed, especially the Washington Post. An article by Gillian Brockell appeared in the Post for July 27th which basically admitted that everything Donnie Kennedy and I said in our book about Lincoln and the Red Republican Party was true. And it only took them eight years to say what Donnie and I said in 2011. Is that media promptness or what? Or are they just trying to make the current Republican Party look bad before Trump’s 2020 run for the presidency? Not that the Republican Party doesn’t have major problems–it surely does, but compared to the current brand of Democratic Party Marxism (yes, I said Marxism) the Republicans look almost conservative–almost but not quite. There are some good conservative Republicans out there in different positions, but they are in the minority.

Ms. Brockell noted some things Lincoln said that sounded like they came from the mouth of Marx. And she duly noted that: “If you think that sounds like something Karl Marx would write, well, that might be because Lincoln was regularly reading Karl Marx.” Trump has expressed admiration for Lincoln and Brockell observed: ‘…the first Republican president, for whom Trump has expressed admiration, was surrounded by socialists and looked to them for counsel.” Brockell again noted: “But Lincoln and Marx–born only nine years apart–were contemporaries. They had many mutual friends, read each other’ work and, in 1865, exchanged letters.” She is admitting some of the same stuff Donnie and I were castigated for saying about Lincoln. Wonder if anyone will jump on her for saying what we said. Bet they won’t.

She even got into Horace Greeley, Lincoln’s friend and his newspaper the New York Tribune  which she said was largely responsible “for transmitting the ideals and ideas that formed the Republican Party in 1854. And what were those ideals and ideas? They were anti-slavery, pro-worker and sometimes overtly socialist, according to John Nichols, author of the book The ‘S’ Word: A Short History of an American Tradition…Socialism.”

She noted the 1848 revolts in Europe and that “Hundreds of thousands of German radicals immigrated to the United States in the same period” most of whom went to the North and joined anti-slavery groups (all the better to promote their socialism, my dear!

She noted Marx’s friendship with Charles A. Dana, and she frankly labeled him an American socialist. He became Edwin Stanton’s right hand man. So what does that tell you about both him and Stanton? More about the vaunted Mr. Stanton in future articles. If you have been reading my recent material you already have some idea as to where Stanton was coming from.

She also commented on Lincoln’s being a one-term congressman and a country lawyer. Hardly qualifications to run an entire country. When I read that I immediately thought of the individual that occupied the White House prior to Trump. Wasn’t he also a one-term congressman–and a community organizer of dubious quality. He was no more qualified to run the country than was Baalam’s ass! You have to realize that there is usually someone behind many of these characters that get into high offices and in most cases it’s their agenda that gets put into play, not what’s best for the American people.

And Brockell noted that “Greeley continued to urge Lincoln to take a harder line against slavery, to make the Civil War not just about preserving the Union but also about abolition. Marx did the same thing in the pages of the Tribune” which Dana had hired him to write for when he worked for Greeley, who was a utopian socialist.
I won’t get into anymore of this here. Most of my readers have probably read this several times, but now the Washington Post  has taken much of what Donnie Kennedy and I said in Lincoln’s Marxists  and made it “official.” And it only took them eight years after the second edition of our book came out! Is that media efficiency or what?