Honest Abe to Dishonest Trib: "Cancel my subscription!"

One hundred fifty-five years ago, Trib co-owner and managing editor Joe Medill helped secure the second Republican presidential nomination for Abe Lincoln. The current Trib Editorial Board likes to remind us of that fact, as they did today in "Let the convention decide: Party of Lincoln or party of Trump." The editorial makes a totally false comparison between the front runner, avowed neo-fascist Donald Trump, and the rest of the Republican field. To liken the more refined candidates Cruz, Kasich and the recently departed Rubio to Honest Abe would provoke a firestorm of protest from the Rail Splitter if he could drop in on the freak show that is the current Republican Party. He would remind the fine writers of the Board that the difference between The Donald and The Rest is purely one of style, not substance. They all want to lavish hundreds of billions more on our grotesquely bloated defense budget. They all want to ratchet up the mindless violence we perpetrate on any folks we deem are worth of instant death in the Middle East and Africa. They all deny the approaching Armageddon of climate change. They all propose a tax plan to inflate the engorged portfolios of the greedy rich. They would all have prevented 16,000,000 needy folks from getting their first health care insurance; including 50,000 that would have otherwise died, had they been able to cast the deciding vote on the Affordable Care Act. They would all push the Palestinians under the bus of Israeli domination and inhuman treatment; and put the national interests of Israel above that of Uncle Sam. They would all try to rescind the Iran nuclear agreement which has reduced the insane threat of war with Iran. They all 'high five' the Citizens United decision which allows a mother-lode of money to pollute our electoral process.

Honest Abe would have no part of those folks, including the entire ruling structure of the Republican Party. If given the choice of coming back to life as titular leader of the Republican Party at Cleveland this July, or resting peacefully at Oak Ridge Cemetery, his reply might be: "All things considered...I'll stay in Springfield."