Now would be a good time for everyone—especially Republicans—to reread Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address of 1838, which warned against the threat of mob rule alongside the peril of overweening political ambition. Though the speech’s language and style are archaic, its message is just as timely now as it was then, and for the same reason: political violence, whether localized in Portland, Oregon, or the nation’s capital by a comparatively small number of people, is a harbinger of the end of democratic self-government if it grows more frequent.
The End of Trump
The Republican Party has just experienced its worst day since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, or at least since the resignation of Richard Nixon. On top of losing two winnable Senate races and thereby control of the upper chamber, the party has watched as the Capitol was stormed by a mob, which disrupted the tallying of the electoral votes before Vice President Mike Pence. Trump, still the party’s leader, badly misjudged the effect of his words and deeds on the Georgia Senate races, and on the crowd gathered in Washington to support him the next day.
Now would be a good time for everyone—especially Republicans—to reread Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address of 1838, which warned against the threat of mob rule alongside the peril of overweening political ambition. Though the speech’s language and style are archaic, its message is just as timely now as it was then, and for the same reason: political violence, whether localized in Portland, Oregon, or the nation’s capital by a comparatively small number of people, is a harbinger of the end of democratic self-government if it grows more frequent.
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Now would be a good time for everyone—especially Republicans—to reread Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address of 1838, which warned against the threat of mob rule alongside the peril of overweening political ambition. Though the speech’s language and style are archaic, its message is just as timely now as it was then, and for the same reason: political violence, whether localized in Portland, Oregon, or the nation’s capital by a comparatively small number of people, is a harbinger of the end of democratic self-government if it grows more frequent.
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