Peggy Noonan’s cheap shot.

Donald Trump has been known to use hyperbole. Peggy Noonan is known for faithfully reflecting the conventional thinking of Washington DC, known by people outside the Beltway as “The Swamp.” By reading Noonan we find out what the alligators in the swamp are talking about. Her latest column questions his sanity and councils him to shut up and sit down if he wants to finish his term.

She quotes him as saying

“No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly.”

And then snarks:

“Actually Lincoln got secession, civil war and a daily pounding from an abolitionist press that thought he didn’t go far enough and moderates who slammed his brutalist pursuit of victory. Then someone shot him in the head. So he had his challenges.”

This may be a good time to remind Peggy of a little history. The Civil War didn’t start at Lincoln’s election.  He wasn’t shot by a Democrat actor until he began his second term. Hollywood had not been invented yet but John Wilkes Booth would have been sympathetic to the way that SNL and late night comics attacked the current Republican President.

The attack on Fort Sumter, which set off the Civil War, began On April 15th of 1861, five months after the election.  Perhaps in Peggy's mind secession, rebellion, civil war, and Lincoln's assassination all blur together.  These things take time, Peg.  But the media and the Democrats - but I repeat myself - are working hard on it.  

Talk of secession is getting serious consideration today. Groups in California,  Oregon, Oklahoma, Maine, New York and  various speakers for Liberal, urban America are talking about it and it’s getting some serious money behind it, especially in California which considers Trumps voters to be sub-human troglodytes.  It's not that much different than the views of Democrats of 1860 regarding Black people. In terms of secession planning Democrats in 1860 were ahead of the curve, their modern counterparts are just getting their act together with a riot here and death threats there.

Of course, newspapers in 1860 were divided between those who supported Lincoln and wanted to abolish slavery and pro-Democrat papers who supported slavery. Today the press speaks with one voice.  It speaks for Democrats, wishing to overturn the election and remove Trump.

Before the election Democrats claimed Trump was "threatening our democracy" by refusing to accept the results of the election.  Today, having lost the election, the press and their allies in the Democrat party are refusing to accept the results of the election; a neck-wrenching reversal reminiscent of how Communists did a 180 following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.   

While I'm told that Lincoln was referred to as "Honest Ape,"  the most esteemed orator in 1860s America, Edward Everett, wrote in his diary:

"He is evidently a person of very inferior cast of character, wholly unequal to the crisis."

From Washington, Congressman Charles Francis Adams wrote,

"His speeches have fallen like a wet blanket here. They put to flight all notions of greatness."

Sound familiar?

If that kind of mild criticism of Lincoln led to a bloodbath, what does it mean for the future of the country when Democrats, the press and comedians accuse Trump of being the agent of America's enemies, giving oral sex to the Russian President and accuse his wife of prostitution.  His son Barron was attacked as a rapist and killer.

Democrats in 1860 were unhappy that a man was elected who believed in the dignity and freedom of all men, not just white men. They were happy to be the ruling class and were determined not to allow a mere election upset the status quo. So they took action and decided that secession and armed rebellion were the answer.   When they lost, they killed the first Republican President.

Of course in 1861 it was easier to stage an armed rebellion. Transportation was primitive and people were most loyal to their community and state. Robert E. Lee was offered command of the Union army but, while opposed to secession,  decided his loyalty lay with Virginia. Today it's a little different.  This conflict is cultural.  Academia is rebelling against Flyover Country; it's the Coasts vs. Middle America.

Today, thanks to the unified combination of the press, the Deep State, the Democrat Party and the Never Trump contingent in the Republican Party the Ruling Class believes that they won’t have to begin an armed rebellion to retain their control of the organs of government.

Keep the Lincoln vs. Trump timeline in mind. It’s still in the first innings of their respective presidencies. It’s still possible that the street violence and secession talk with grow into something more deadly. 

Assassination? Several Presidents since Lincoln have been assassinated. Even Presidents who were not compared unfavorably to Hitler. Presidents much less vilified by the popular culture than Trump. He hasn’t even won a second term yet Peggy. Give the Democrats time. I’m sure they’ll get around to it.  I would caution Trump against going to the theater.

(edited)