Reflections on The Lincoln Conspiracy-An Appeal to the Better Angels of Our Nature

As both a writer and reader, it is best to be transparent from the get-go. In that spirit, then, I have an agenda here. The recent blockbuster (my opinion, if not that of the NY Times Book Review) The Lincoln Conspiracy is a must-read.

For everyone.

But primarily, Catholics.

Why?

Because it is impossible to read this book without thinking of the current “state of our union.”

Because a significant number of Catholics vote Democratic and plan to do so in November.

This article aims at asking my Democratic readers to re-think their political affiliation for reasons which are listed clearly and-I hope-cogently- in the following piece. For those of you who despise this President, this request is significant- I appreciate that. I write not about the merits of the current President, instead, I write about some facts about the Democrat Party which you may be unaware of.

And ask merely that you form no judgements yet but open your mind to the contents of this article.

But first, let’s talk about this fantastic book!

There’s a secret on this train.

With their first sentence, Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch had me captivated. In fact, I could barely put the book down, the story was so engrossing. Complete with the world’s first detective agency, first female detective, undercover cops and crooked Police Chiefs, The Lincoln Conspiracy rivals a Grisham, Connelly, or Lee Child mystery. One reviewer calls it a first-rate nonfiction thriller.

Indeed, that it is.

Here’s my favorite review:

Think you know everything about Abraham Lincoln? Well, think again. The Lincoln Conspiracy not only revitalizes history, it transforms it, turning its principal player into a flesh and blood defender of everything the republic stands for, and the target of a malevolent cabal that went awry long before the ill-fated night at Ford’s Theatre. Fantastic. You’ll never look at Abraham Lincoln the same way again.”

Les Standiford, bestselling author of Last Train to Paradise & Meet You in Hell

Perhaps you had read about “the secret plot to kill America’s 16th President- and Why it Failed?” For me, this was brand new knowledge…and eerily expressive of today. More on that in a moment.

The authors paint a brief but vivid look into the early life of Abraham Lincoln. Through their exploration of the multiple reasons for the melancholy that cloaked his boyhood and adult life, we perceive him- this man who was catapulted from obscurity to the Presidency. A humble and wise man who foresaw that he would not live through his second presidential term.

Not without a sense of awe do we read the machinations of the “Baltimore Assassination Plot” that came perilously close to preventing his arrival to Washington for his inauguration.

But it was the authors’ graphically detailed description of prominent Southern Democrats’ absolute hatred of the newly created Republican Party’s nominee

that sticks… days and weeks after finishing this splendid true story.

Despite the passage of 150 years since the bloodiest war [called the Civil War because of the Latin origin of the word civil meaning citizen] in this nation’s history, it’s impossible not to ponder the strange history of the Democrat and Republican political parties. Nor can we resist comparing them or fail to wonder at the patent hypocrisy of a twenty-first- century Democrat Party which claims racial equality as its political heritage while branding Republicans as racists.

” The Republicans freed the slaves in the Civil War. The Republicans put an end to Jim Crow. The Republicans were the first to elect black Americans to Congress. Under no interpretation can Democrats claim to be the party of inclusivity – and yet they have managed to by gaining control of the education system and effectively presenting a revisionist history…” Candace Owens.

Reading about American citizens so implacably committed to their cause of slavery that they commit to assassinating an elected President feels like listening to today’s mainstream news, not the mid-nineteenth century. Because the unappeasable hatred for President Donald Trump most assuredly exceeds that for the 16th President. Or so it seems.

Although I avoid watching the news at all costs,I am constantly online, writing. And therefore, increasingly stunned by the flagrant politicalization of the recent crises by Democratic elected officials.

Today’s ideological divide and the passions incited by it may look very different from those of the mid-nineteenth century to most Americans. But my careful read of The Lincoln Conspiracy revealed chilling similarities. Because I believe the real polarizing issue of the upcoming election is the Democratic Party’s reframing of abortion as the “empowerment of women and girls.”. And its partnership with Planned Parenthood which is causing a holocaust within the African-American and Hispanic populations.

Wait- are you correlating slavery with abortion?

Yeah, I guess I am. Ponder these points please before you decide to stop reading.

• Abortion is currently the leading cause of death in America, but far more so for the black community, and accounts for more black deaths than homicide or any disease, including cancer and heart disease.
• ….We know that Planned Parenthood targets black and other minority communities, having up to 79% of their surgical abortion facilities located within walking distance of African American or Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods.”
• Although black women comprise only 6-7% of the American women, they account for 40% of abortions.
• Planned Parenthood’s revenue for 2018-2019 was more than 1.6 billion with close to 617 million from taxpayers.
• The abortion provider is spending 45 million on the November election of Democrats.

Both ‘ideologies’, fundamentally, are about money. Just as successful Southern cotton plantation owners ran businesses for which slave labor was the critical ingredient, so Planned Parenthood, and the politicians who support it form an unholy alliance of mutual financial benefit.

When I talk about these things to my Democratic- Trump- hating friends, many agree that all this has gone too far, but then add something like”What a terrible President Trump is.” How “lacking in civility” he is.

More than a few of my Catholic and Christian friends defend their Democratic alliance by justifications like these babies are ‘better off’ because they are not wanted. After all, look at the ubiquity of child abuse, drug addiction and the ever lengthening list of horrors waiting to devour our children.

It’s funny, because until my conversion to Catholic Christianity, I was just as liberal, pro-choice and avidly Democratic. Or probably more so. I recall opining about my conviction that animals were far more deserving of help than were humans…back when I did not understand that each human soul is created in the image and likeness of God and is given a unique mission that can be accomplished only by him or her.

Nor did I believe that the child was conceived because it is God who brings life and death.

Learn then that I, I alone, am God,
and there is no god besides me.
It is I who bring both death and life,
I who inflict wounds and heal them.”
R. It is I who deal death and give life.
I will sharpen my flashing sword,
and my hand shall lay hold of my quiver,
“With vengeance I will repay my foes
and requite those who hate me.”

Deuteronomy 32

And so I end this piece with President Lincoln's appeal to the "better angels of our nature:

We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from ever battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Lincoln’s Inaugural Address