The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution

The Crooked Path to Abolition
James Oakes

Politicians of the time alleged that the Civil War was about something other than slavery. Jefferson Davis claimed it was about states rights, but, as Lincoln pointed out, slavery was the only state right being challenged. Not that Yankee politicians were more forthright. In the early years of the war, Lincoln said he was fighting solely to restore the Union. After the fact, most books by participants and historians have treaded lightly on slavery as the primary cause.

During and after the Constitutional Convention, slaveholding states had threatened to secede if they did not get their way. With a few brief interludes, slaveholders or slave tolerant politicians controlled the national government from its inception. The slave states had grown used to dominance, but a party had emerged who outspokenly threaten their “peculiar institution.” With the election of the first Republican President, the slaveholders made good on their decades-old threat to dismantle the Union.

The Crooked Path to Abolition is a timely book. Historians are always looking for a niche perspective on Abraham Lincoln. James Oats has picked a rare one. He doesn’t come up with a unique thesis and then cobble together evidence to prove his thesis. For the most part, he compiles evidence and then presents it impassively, allowing the reader to make up their mind.

Lincoln certainly took a crooked path to abolition. A purposeful path or the flailing of an uncertain politician? 

Read the book and you decide.

(This is a research book for Maelstrom, a sequel to Tempest at Dawn.)

FDA Approval of Pfizer Vaccine? (Part Deux)

Previously, I explained the charade surrounding the supposed FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine. You might be wondering why the government is so hell bent for leather on inoculating youngsters under twelve. As usual, follow the money.

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act removed liability for vaccines recommended by the CDC for children. Since 2016, they’ve also removed liability for vaccines given to pregnant women.

The current goal is to build general acceptance for vaccinating young children. Recent FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) for children 5-12 was a big step. The next leg of this journey will be CDC recommended use for children. Vaccine manufactures would then be protected against law suits by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Voilà, Pfizer can now start distributing its vaccine under the brand name Comirnaty. It would be officially licensed by the FDA and remain shielded from liability.

I may have made a mistake in the prior paragraph. I wrote "Vaccine manufactures would then be protected against law suits by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act." If my understanding of the EUA legislation is correct, treatments can only be approved for "emergency" use if no licensed treatment exists. Once Pfizer is fully licensed, can Moderna and J&J vaccines still be distributed? I think not, but please comment if you have a different read. Even if I'm wrong and Moderna/J&J do not lose their EUA status, they still would have a difficult time competing against an FDA sanctioned product from Pfizer.

Pfizer, and possibly other drug companies, would then be on the receiving end of a firehose of money. Risk free! Better yet, booster mandates will keep their coffers overflowing forever. Plenty to go around. Politicians will become kings of the roost and everyone else will tout the party line or get booted out of the food line. As an added benefit, mandate enforcement will become legally unchallengeable.

Now you know why they insist youngsters get vaccinated ... and why the pressure will become intense.

Democrats Pretend to Care

 

If you listen to Democrats, they’re caring creatures.  Feigning empathy for the plight of others is a cornerstone of identity politics.  But if they really cared, why would their actions not reflect their espoused concerns?  Why would they be caught so often violating their supposed principles?  Why would the lives of their constituents never improve?  The answer is obvious.  Democrats only pretend to care.

Democrats pretend to care about Blacks.

Democrats were the actual slavers, fought to preserve slavery, formed the Ku Klux Klan to keep freed slaves in line, imposed Jim Crow laws to keep former slaves powerless, systemically dismantled Black families, prioritized the placement of abortion clinics in Black neighborhoods, and ran the education system so that Black children remained disadvantaged.  Riots inflict the most damage on the emerging Black middle class.  Arguably, the image of uncontrollable mobs did not enhance race relations in the United States.

Democrats really care about harvesting Black votes every two years.

Democrats pretend to care about the working class.

Long ago, Democrats abandoned the working class.  Complicit with Republicans, Democrats sent our best jobs offshore and imported mass volumes of immigrants to deflate wages and replace working American here at home.  The Democrat approach to trade agreements skew to the advantage of foreign nations.  When President Trump built a robust economy that put America First, Democrats used the pandemic to crush the economy.  Their purposeful strategy is apparent when Blue and Red State pandemic actions are reviewed, and the results examined.  Democrats defend the Chinese Communist Party despite their weaponization of trade, absorption of our key industries, and the infliction of a pandemic on the world.

Democrats really care about the working class as a voting bloc.

Democrats pretend to care about LGBT.

In opposition to LGBT interests, Democrats see virtue in Islam, push for mass immigration of Muslims, and help establish enclaves where their cultural can be preserved intact.  Incongruently, they simultaneously denounce the supposed bigotry in Jewish and Christian religions.  Democrats viciously attack conservative members of the LGBT community, which proves that adherence to Leftist dogma eclipses LGBT sexuality concerns.

Democrats really care about weaponizing sex for political gain.

Democrats pretend to care about a woman’s right to choose.

Choice means that an individual can decide between options, but Democrats try to silence those who advocate for non-abortion alternatives.  Women who choose to abort are celebrated but women who choose not to abort are scorned. Democrats have taken choice away from the mothers of underage girls. Planned Parenthood has located 79% of its Surgical Abortion Facilities in minority neighborhoods. Democrats fight standard medical practices at abortion clinics.

Democrats really care about population control.

Democrats pretend to care about educating children.

Democrats oppose all school reforms including charter schools, magnet schools, vouchers, tax credits, performance incentives, home schooling, and other corrective measures.  They inhibit teacher dismissals for incompetence and misconduct and encourage bloated administrative structures.  Democrat controlled teachers’ unions and have coopted the Parent Teachers Association.  Curriculum has migrated from the three Rs to political indoctrination.

Democrats really care about employing adults in the academic/political complex for the purpose of indoctrinating children.

Democrats pretend that no one is above the law.

Democrats believe laws, rules, ethics, morality, consistency, and truth are in place to constrain Republicans.  Democrats repeatedly shout that no one is above the law, yet illegal immigrants are above the law, Joe Biden’s son is above the law, Adam Schiff’s felony leaking of classified information is above the law, Antifa criminal assault and wanton destruction of property is above the law, Obama’s illegal weaponization of our nation’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies is above the law, and Hillary Clinton’s myriad illegal activities are all above the law.

Democrats really care about using the law to suppress Republicans.

Democrats pretend to care about science.

Democrats use the word science like the word Nazi.  They don’t really believe every opponent is a Nazi and they don’t believe in science.  These words are used to shut down debate.  Much of the science they tout is based on computer models or unverifiable papers related to the soft sciences like sociology, psychology, economics, and gender studies.  They tout as science computer models for climate change, Covid19 spread, socialist economic policies, tax policies, etc. Computer models are not science.  Until their projections are proven to be better than fifty percent accurate, computer models are merely opinion pieces written in computer code.  Hard sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geoscience remain completely foreign to Democrats.

Democrats really care about scientific claims that further their agenda.

Democrats pretend to care about voter suppression.

Democrats push every change making registration and voting easier, but it has nothing to do with the professed goal of fighting voter suppression.  These actions represent the first step in institutionalizing voter fraud.  The additional steps include fighting all checks against voter fraud, supporting every change that opens a new path to fraud, universal unrequested mail-in ballots, fighting every attempt to cleanse voter rolls, the legalization of vote harvesting, the encouragement of illegal immigration, and the issuance of driver licenses to illegals.

Democrats really care about winning elections by any means necessary.

Democrats have ceased to pretend about some issues.

Democrats ceased pretending to care about bipartisanship, free speech, free enterprise, small businesses, law and order, fair elections, political corruption, and police state tactics.  In addition, Democrats no longer deny that they disdain the Constitution, support gun confiscation, crave a socialist state, revere the UN and WHO, despise the police, endorse open borders, loathe Israel, and are contemptuous of our election process.

President Donald Trump’s greatest accomplishment?  He singlehandedly exposed Democrats for who they really are.