The Lincolns in Kentucky -Video

[David Lockmiller]

(06-10-2024 03:32 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  I thought one of the most interesting parts of this discussion was the role of money in presidential politics, then and now [ironic thanks to the Republican Supreme Court's role in Citizens United v. FEC], and was also an affirmation of Lincoln's personal integrity:

When one enterprising Illinois Republican suggested that [Lincoln] ought to have a campaign chest of $10,000, Lincoln replied that the proposal was an impossibility: "I could not raise ten thousand dollars if it would save me from the fate of John Brown. Nor have my friends, so far as I know, yet reached the point of staking any money on my chances of success." To a request for money from Mark W. Delahay, an old and somewhat disreputable Illinois friend who hoped to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention in order to promote his chance of being elected senator from Kansas, Lincoln responded: "I can not enter the ring on the money basis--first, because, in the main, it is wrong; and secondly, I have not, and can not get, the money." Yet, admitting that "in a political contest, the use of some [money], is both right, and indispensable," he offered to furnish Delahay $100 for his expenses in attending the convention. (As it turned out, Delahay was not chosen as a Kansas delegate but went to Chicago anyhow to root for Lincoln, who paid him the money he had promised.)

The role that money (and the sources of money) now play in national politics are the important points.

Trump has publicly stated:

Giving $1 billion would be a “deal,” Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him. Trump's remarkably blunt and transactional pitch reveals how the former president is targeting the oil industry to finance his reelection.

What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign Headline of Washington Post - May 9, 2024

Isn't it remarkable how things have changed in this democracy in 164 years (the presidential election of 1860 and the presidential election of 2024)?