ZadekpediaLincoln in the founding story
Bob Zadek opened a July 2021 Independence Day episode by arguing that the founding era cannot be fully understood without studying the Civil War period and, most particularly, Abraham Lincoln. He told listeners that one cannot see the full context of what the founders were trying to do, and what they were afraid to do, without studying the period from 1861 through 1865 and a bit thereafter. He introduced John Cribb, author of the historical novel Old Abe, describing the book as covering roughly the period beginning in 1861 with Lincoln becoming the 16th president, when secession and Civil War were inevitable, and assigning a first-term president the task of winning a civil war, holding the country together, and delivering an intact post-Civil War country. America’s Second Founding (2021)
Cribb said the book covers the last five years of Lincoln’s life, beginning with his nomination to the presidency, and follows him through his presidency and the Civil War. He said he wanted the book to be historically accurate, with every chapter dated, and that he chose the novel form because there are many fine non-fiction biographies of Lincoln but not so many novels. He said he wanted to bring Lincoln to life as a walking, talking, breathing fellow rather than the stiff image on the five-dollar bill or the penny. America’s Second Founding (2021)
The first income tax
On an August 2017 episode, Bob Zadek noted that on that day in 1861, newly elected President Abraham Lincoln proposed and got enacted into law the first income tax. Zadek said it was temporary, lasted for 10 years, taxed other things as well, and then went away, only to come back several decades later in 1913, when the country ended up with an income tax for good. The War on Chinese Restaurants with Gabriel Chin (2017)
Lincoln and the Declaration
Steven B. Smith, in an April 2021 episode, called Lincoln a hero—the hero in many ways of his book—and said Lincoln put the matter of American principles in the best way. Smith said Lincoln understood that American principles were founded in the Declaration of Independence, particularly its clause of human equality, and that this provided the bedrock of what America as a nation was. Smith said Lincoln understood clearly that those principles had not been perfectly realized in 1776 or in 1861, but that we struggle to achieve those ideals. Steven B. Smith on Reclaiming Patriotism (2021)
Smith made these remarks in the course of criticizing the New York Times 1619 Project, which he said would have us believe that America is founded in racism and slavery and that racism and white supremacy has been the core of American national identity from 1619 to 2021. Smith said the claim is that these are the principles, not departures from them, and called that a deeply corrosive ideology. Steven B. Smith on Reclaiming Patriotism (2021)
Lincoln and progressive conservatism
F.H. Buckley, a law professor at George Mason University and author of Progressive Conservatism, argued in a July 2022 episode that there is an important history of progressivism in the Republican Party. He said it can be found in Lincoln’s internal policies, big time in Teddy Roosevelt, and also in Eisenhower. Buckley said Eisenhower called himself a progressive and at one point said the Republican Party must become progressive or it is going to die. Progressive Conservatism with F.H. Buckley (2022)
In a second episode that same week, Buckley said that if you are a nationalist, you have to adopt the values of the founders of the country, something he said Lincoln expressly did in a speech on July 4th, 1858. Buckley said Lincoln, speaking about immigration, honored the people who fought in the revolution and said that even if you cannot establish a direct blood tie to the founders, it is enough if you subscribe to their values—that the electric cord of the words of the Declaration unites all Americans. Buckley said that is what American nationalism means, and that nationalists who are illiberal are not American. Trumpism After Trump (2022)
Across episodes
Lincoln is invoked in four episodes spanning 2017 to 2022, and the episodes show no development in the treatment: he appears as a fixed reference point for arguments about the income tax, the Declaration of Independence, the Civil War, and the Republican Party’s progressive tradition. Each guest or host uses him to anchor a different present-day argument rather than to revise the earlier ones.