Reply #3: This post is pure rubbish, and DU at its most reactionary and partisan.

[IrateCitizen]

Lincoln was most certainly a virulent racist by today's standards, that much cannot be denied. However, by the standards of HIS day (the standards by which he should be judged), he offered far more in the way of progress on racial issues than any other major politician.

Did you note also that Lincoln was the first President to de-segregate the federal government? Did you also note that this policy remained in effect until DEMOCRAT Woodrow Wilson reversed it upon being inaugurated in 1913?

As an aspiring historian, it pisses me off to high heaven to see people making pronouncements such as this without any regard to the cultural context of the time in which these events happen. Furthermore, do we really want to place the record of the Democrats on race relations prior to the post-war period up as some kind of standard and pretend that the Republicans were in some way worse?

WRT Reagan, I'll give you that. But Lincoln would be cast out of the Republican Party if he were alive today. In fact, many of his views (especially regarding regulation of corporations and the position of labor in the nation) would even be cast out of the Democratic Party.