CSotD: Experts Say Lincoln Must Drop Out Now!
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It’s obvious by now that the toll paid in human lives exceeds any of the goals that Lincoln, et al, laid out when they dragged us into this war. It’s also obvious that you can’t justify the deaths of our young men with clever, folksy stories.
As we approach the 1864 elections, it’s plain that Lincoln is not the man to lead this nation forward. He needs to go back to Illinois and split rails and leave governance to more capable hands.
Of course, we can’t expect him to make this important decision himself. Perhaps his wife could intervene on behalf of the nation and talk some sense into the man, who flatters himself that he will regain the presidency despite the obvious signs that his candidacy is doomed.
It’s patently absurd for the President, in the face of failure after failure, and after having dismissed some of the most capable military men in the Union Army, to continue to believe that there are better times coming or that his misguided policies will advance us towards victory.
It is also clear that the public has no taste for the world promised by Mr. Lincoln and his allies. However you feel about such things, practicality dictates that the Republicans take a less revolutionary approach in the coming campaign if they expect to have any chance of attracting the votes necessary to retain the White House and Congress.
There is also the looming prospect of defeat, as Davis and the Confederacy have at least a chance of solving their economic woes while Lincoln has put the Union under such a debt load that there is no reasonable prospect of recovery.
The plain fact is clear to everyone: General McClellan and the Democrats are poised for a major victory in November unless the Republicans ditch Lincoln now and select someone with a better chance of winning the election and then bringing this regrettable war to a satisfactory ending.
We need action, and we need it immediately. The time for gibes and folksy tales are long since past. Lincoln must step down before he is cast down.
(The cartoons are genuine. The text is a fair approximation of what experts were saying. The intent is sarcasm.)
And another thing …
Clarity can be difficult in complex matters, and Luckovich and Bagley do well to point out the overall leanings of the McConnell Court towards catering to the interests of major corporations.
However, the decision casting down the Chevron precedent and putting regulatory rulings in the hands of law school graduates rather than qualified engineers may be closer to the accusation of selling out than the more obvious case alluded to here, rejecting the federal law against post-action payoffs.
In the ruling on “gratuities,” Justice Kavanaugh did not write that gifts and money given to politicians for doing the bidding of corporations should be legal. Rather, he said that state laws should govern the matter and that the federal law, as written, did not properly apply.
Jackson, Sotomayor and Kagan dissented, and not unreasonably. But the end result of the ruling was to place the matter in the hands of Congress, with Kavanaugh plainly stating that a federal law could, indeed, cover the matter if Congress wanted to write it.
There have been Congresses that would be eager to take up that challenge, and there have been Presidents who would have welcomed the chance to sign such a bill into law.
Much — and much more than this — depends on what happens in November.
Meanwhile, addressing the stripping of power from regulatory agencies should be on more cartoonists’ dockets.
As an Adirondacker, I wouldn’t want to see the full-on return of acid rain from Midwestern industry, and I’d rather it were controlled by the EPA, however imperfectly, than left up to Harlan Crow, who owns a lovely lakeside retreat there, with its own SCOTUS mascot.
Note, however, that Thomas joined in the decision to let the pollution continue for the time being.
Perhaps Harlan isn’t a fisherman.
And then there’s this:
Clay Jones responded to the Surgeon General’s call for a warning on social media with this cartoon and a blog entry in which he opined — and I’d tend to agree — that the warning would hardly be effective with such an addictive attraction.
I remember when warnings first appeared on cigarette packages. I had been smoking since I was 14 and, by then, 1966, I was 16, in high school and had a pack-a-day habit. But I was at least made aware of the hazards each time I picked up a pack, and it did help persuade me to quit.
At 34. But better late than never.
However, let’s talk timing, because Jones published his cartoon and blog on June 27, and he made the impassioned point that guns are also a health hazard and maybe deserve warning stickers, too.
He may not have been aware that, two days earlier, the Surgeon General had — without calling for stickers — echoed that concern:
Jones notes that stickers on rock music may have increased sales rather than discouraging them, and that “everybody knows” the hazards of social media just as “everybody knows” the hazards of smoking.
And both Jones and Jeff Stahler (AMS) expressed doubt over the efficacy of warning labels on guns, Jones apparently unaware of the Surgeon General’s concerns, Stahler in response to them.
It seems clear that everyone should know that guns can kill people, but so what? Most of my young friends began smoking by filching cigarettes from their parents, and we’ve seen the way too many parents are no more careful in how they store their guns.
Here’s where it leaves me: I’m glad the Surgeon General has spoken up about firearms, but we didn’t need to overthrow the Chevron precedent to put gun safety in the hands of judges. We’d done that long ago, and seen what happens when SCOTUS purports to be firearm experts.
Makes me wonder if they also think they know more about medicine than the Surgeon General? After all, they’ve also pronounced themselves qualified to speak about pharmaceuticals.
If a Republican Senate began appointing smokers to the bench, would the Tobacco Industry offer them gratuities afterwards?
I don’t know.
We should ask an expert.
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