Brainwashing of America Continues - Commentary by Lewis Regenstein

On saturday afternoon, C-SPAN's BookTV program re-ran an 18-November broadcast of The Lincoln Forum, held at the Gettysburg Inn, hosted by Lincoln author Harold Holzer, featuring half a dozen other Lincoln authors.

The thing that struck me about this seminar, and all the others, was that it was not needlessly burdened by any real dissenting voices to the Party Line, and the participants were able to portray Lincoln with the usual platitudes....as a man beyond reproach, a virtual deity...our greatest president.

Such phrases as "a man for all seasons" and "a search for the source of his greatness" were common... Lincoln's critics and people who wrote books on such subjects as Lincoln's racism and his assassination were dismissed and described, in their absence, as "nuts" who fabricate documents.

The distinguished Memphis author Shelby Foote was mentioned contemptuously. And Holzer tried to cut off a woman in the audience who raised the issue of the arrest of Senator VanLandingham for criticizing Lincoln's War. But she persisted, got the question in, and Holzer responded that this raises some of the same issues we face today in wartime.

Another speaker did mention, without elaboration, that over 4,200 U.S. citizens were subjected to military tribunals.

How can these people call themselves scholars when they refuse to allow any real critical views of Lincoln to be aired ?

Stalin would have been pleased to have had such discipline among Party officials during his reign.

I have the feeling that these folks are all friends, review each others' books, and regularly engage in self-congratulation and self-adulation on their success in establishing themselves high priests at the shrine of Saint Abraham.

One wonders what would have happened if one, just one, knowledgeable Lincoln scholar like Tom DiLorenzo had been there, to discuss Lincoln's closing down over 100 newspapers, jailing reporters, editors, & legislators, abolishing civil rights, ordering a campaign of mass murder, a virtual genocide, against the Native Americans (the so-called 'Indian wars'), and waging a brutal war against civilians in the South, burning homes, farms, and entire cities full of defenseless civilians. All these actions are well documented---there's no need to fabricate anything.

Truly, the brainwashing of the public proceeds apace.

---

Lewis Regenstein, a native Atlantan, is a writer and author. {regenstein@mindspring.com}

Related Links
The King Lincoln Archive Lew Rockwell

The Imaginary Abe - Joseph Sobran

The Real Lincoln : A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War by Thomas J. DiLorenzo

Union Army Code of Conduct - by Lewis Regenstein