Gettysburg Address: Lincoln, Trump, and Government of the People

“We here highly resolve … that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” —A. Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

Throughout American history, one political party has always defined itself on anti-constitutional principles, one party has always championed moral evils and tried to destroy America from the inside, through physical violence or political manipulation. This anti-American, criminal organization is the Democrat Party.

More than a century and a half ago, Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address. Now as then, the fate of our Republic hangs in the balance, with traitorous Democrats attempting to assassinate America as they assassinated Lincoln and tried to assassinate Trump. But we must heed Lincoln’s call and ensure that the sacrifice of those who died in the Civil War and all US wars for liberty will not be in vain.

As the classic Civil War anthem says, “Rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom…the Union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah! down with the traitor, and up with the star. And we’ll fill our vacant ranks with a million freemen more, shouting the battle cry of freedom.”

The rest of this piece is taken from my article published on PJ Media.

Today marks the 161st anniversary of Abraham Lincoln delivering his iconic Gettysburg Address. The address was made amidst a war started by Democrats who refused to accept election results or compromise on slavery, as many wondered if our republic could endure. It not only endured, it flourished to new heights, but now the Democrat Party once again is trying to destroy our republic from within. It is up to Donald Trump and his administration and supporters, including us, to see that we weather the crisis of our own time as the Civil War generation weathered theirs.

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” Lincoln said at the dedication of the Gettysburg battle cemetery on Nov. 19, 1863. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.” He praised the brave men who had fought and died for liberty and union on that ground.

Lincoln ended with a call to his audience and all patriots to take up the task that the dead soldiers could no longer finish. “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced,” Lincoln said. “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

It’s a call that applies to us still today, as we face a national crisis and a political civil war of our own — started, as it happens, by the same party that launched the Civil War, namely, the Democrat Party.

The Civil War was undoubtedly about slavery, which the Confederates/Democrats proudly and openly avowed at the time, and certainly, the war would never have been started had not Democrats been horrified at anti-slavery Abraham Lincoln’s election victory (most of the states seceded before Lincoln even took office). We have experienced a taste of this history in our own time, as Democrats have consistently refused to recognize the legitimacy of elections that go against them, and as they crazily label their opponents “fascists” and “Nazis” for not condoning unrestricted baby murder and race-obsessed politics.

Slavery in the 19th century or abortion in the 21st century, the Democrat party is now as it has always been from Andrew Jackson onwards an anti-constitutional party, a party that enthusiastically praises and pushes evils, a party that wants to see America as it was founded destroyed. From the time when the first Democrat president Jackson boastfullyviolated the Constitution to the Democrat leaders who tried to break up the Union permanently in the 1860s to the Democratsnow calling for the imprisonment or assassination of Trump and his supporters (including over 1,500 J6ers), there might be a change in stated policies but never a change in primary goals and tactics.

It is important to note, of course, that there have always been some American citizens who voted for the Democrat Party while falsely believing that they were voting pro-American. Crises usually highlight the falsity of that belief, just as some Democrats broke with the Confederates and became ardent Unionists during the Civil War — like the great U.S. Grant, who was a pre-war Democrat, a Civil War Unionist, and a post-war Republican. Just so now, in this 2024 election, we saw a number of Democrats and left-leaning independents, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, leaving the Democrat Party to join forces with Trump. Trump triggered historic swings in normally Democrat voting blocs and blue states.

All of this is to say that we, like Lincoln and the Republicans and Unionists of the 1860s, are facing a crisis and a crossroads. Trump is not as good a man as Lincoln was and not quite so concerned with only exercising constitutional powers as Lincoln was, but like Lincoln, he is passionately patriotic and a persistent fighter. 

Trump has already been more fortunate than Lincoln in one instance, namely, in surviving his assassination attempt, which Lincoln, of course, did not (Lincoln was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer horrified that Lincoln supported black Americans’ civil rights). Therefore Trump has the opportunity to change American and world history, reverse the unconstitutional policies of the Democrats, and launch a new era of American greatness.

The Civil War never really ended — the battlefields shifted and the weapons changed, that is all. The Democrats spent decades after the Civil War trying to enforce legally and through domestic terrorism what they had not been able to vindicate on the battlefield. And even now, despite Republicans’ historic victory in the 2024 election, the Democrats are not going to give up easily. The politicians and domestic terrorists of the left are prepared to fight Trump and his supporters every step of the way. It is now up to us to ensure that our honored dead did not die in vain and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.