LM#43--Lincoln's Lyceum Speech + 3 Supreme Court Cases = the Most Unique Election Since 1912

Did Abraham Lincoln have a premonition about our time way back in 1838? Was he really foreseeing the country's suicide in his famous Lyceum speech in Springfield, Illinois? Let's talk about that and more on this Liberty Minute.

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I am David, and welcome back to this Liberty Minute and welcome to the year of 1838, a pivotal moment in the history of the United States. This was a time of profound change and challenges, pushing the nation towards an uncharted future. The Second Seminole War was in full swing, marking one of the longest and most costly Indian wars in American history. Meanwhile, the infamous Trail of Tears commenced, which is a poignant symbol of the governmental policy for Native American removal. Thank you, andrew Jackson. In the realm of technology, samuel Morris was demonstrating the telegraph, and it was signaling the dawn of rapid communication. Horse-drawn carriages and boats were the popular modes of transportation in the 1830s. However, the year 1830 also marked a dramatic shift in transportation, as we have. The first successful American steam locomotive made its inaugural trip. This event signaled the dawn of the railroad era, an America which would revolutionize travel and commerce. As the decade progressed, more and more steam locomotives began to crisscross our country, promising an exciting future of unprecedented connectivity and rapid movement. Indeed, the 1830s can be seen as the decade that set America on track towards a future of fast and efficient transportation. And in the heart of central Illinois, amidst all of these monumental events, a prominent figure was emerging within the Whig Party, a man by the name of Abraham Lincoln. He was brilliant, charismatic, deeply committed to public service. He was rising swiftly through the ranks to become the leading voice within the Whig Party, especially in central Illinois. In this period would mark a significant chapter in Lincoln's political career, setting the stage for his landmark contributions he would later make as our 16th President of the United States and our greatest President to ever have served. Now let's turn to Lincoln's remarks at the Young Man's Lyceum, where he gave an address in January of 1838 and where it became one of his greatest speeches he ever gave. As for the subject of tonight's remarks, the perpetuation of our political institutions is selected In the Great Journal of Things Happening Under the Sun. We, the American people, find our account running under date of the 19th century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil and salutary of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which. The history of former times tells us when, I'm sorry, we win, mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toil not in the acquirement or the establishment of them they are a legacy bequeath to us but by a once hardy and brave and patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of ancestors. There's was the task and nobly they performed it to possess themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal rights. It is ours only to transmit these, the former unperfained by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest generation. That fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves due to posterity, and love for our species in general, all and parentively, require us faithfully to perform. How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never All the armies of Europe, asia and Africa, combined with all the treasure of the earth, our own, accepted in their military chests with a bone apart, for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trail of a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer if it ever reach us, it must spring up among us. We cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide. Now, lincoln was only 28 years old when he said that, and some 23 years later he would be our 16th president of the United States. Did he have a premonition that he would have to face one of the worst and most brutal wars the United States has ever been a part of the US Civil War? Did he know that he might in fact have to struggle to keep the Union together despite a succession of more than 10 states leaving the Union Seven? Before he even took his inaugural address in March of 1861. We made it through that Civil War. Unfortunately, lincoln didn't get to see the very best of America as it trudged its way out of that Civil War to fight for another 10 years on, trying to win the peace from 1865 to 1876, only to lose the peace in the election of 1876. And then we would face another 100 years of Jim Crow laws in the South. But back to the question that Lincoln posed to the young man's lyceum in Springfield 各位, but we die by suicide. So last week I asked the question will the GOP commit political suicide? And now we have our answer In fact they will. That is in the aftermath of the Iowa caucuses. The GOP electorate is mad as hell about the lawfare being done to Donald Trump and it is clear now, at least since March of 2023, when all of this started, that no matter who ran, the overwhelming majority of the GOP voters wanted their former president, donald Trump, to run again and to win. Trump got over 50% in Iowa, which is a big deal. He won every demographic except the young people, 18 to 29. He didn't win. He won despite very low voter turnout and the new artificial intelligence polling was completely wrong. The mass media polling was right. Trafalgar the Trafalgar poll was probably the closest to nailing it on the button. So all the hubble blue about having the most successful ground game for Governor Ron DeSantis never turned out. Furthermore, all the talk about the most successful governor, kim Reynolds of Iowa. Her being wildly popular never mattered Having the likes of big names in Iowa like Bob Vander Plots and Radio Talk Show Steve Dace. Having them endorse you doesn't mean beans in Iowa. Iowa is largely becoming more and more irrelevant. Trump barely invested any time in the whole state and still he won it. Big Florida Governor, ron DeSantis, went around to all 99 counties. He did as they say, and Iowa the full grassly and that's named after their 91 year old senator who's still in Congress. And Ron DeSantis, having pulled the full grassly all 99 counties, spent a lot of time shaking hands, putting his family through all the trials and tribulations of a campaign. Barely got 22%. Now you could say well, that's because Ron DeSantis is just a bad candidate, which you could do. That I will bet that statement won't age. Well, I bet you dollars to doughnuts that if we have a country in 2028 or 2032 and DeSantis does decide to run again, he will be a much better candidate than people who are ripping him now after this week. So that's a brief recap of the Iowa caucuses. I was wrong, didn't predict this at all, but now we know we have the answer. Donald Trump owns the GOP voter at least a heavy majority of them and, frankly, these are answers I wish I didn't have to know, but there are nevertheless answers and offer us extreme clarity on where the country is going. I believe Iowa had the ability to pivot to one of its strongest candidates in the GOP field since Ronald Reagan in Florida, governor Ron DeSantis and the Iowa voter looked directly at him and said no, thank you. That's very disappointing. It's even more disappointing to him and his family. He's the kind of person, strong in character and virtues, that you would want to run for president and, frankly, people like that don't want to run for president any longer. He is right on so many of the big issues, but again, he did not win Iowa. So our country is going in a different direction and I think now we can add a lot more color to what Lincoln said in 1838, like I said, at the meager age of 28 years old. And one of the items that jumped out to me in reviewing the Iowa data was this that over 70% of those in Iowa caucuses identified as MAGA supporters, clearly in the Trump camp, and over 50% of those same people indicated they didn't think President Biden was legitimately elected. And that's not surprising, actually, but here is what was surprising and this speaks for our last 10 years of political chicanery. That same group of folks, in the same series of questions, said in response to the question would Trump still be fit for office if he were convicted on one of the 91 criminal counts he faces? Two-thirds Said he would be, but that means that three and ten Said he wouldn't be. Three and ten voters in a conservative state like Iowa Said no to Trump being unfit for office, like the doomsday scenario we didn't want to go through. But it seems that is the train wreck that is fast approaching. Now two important dates are fast approaching for the country we will have to watch. First is March 5th, when 15 states will vote. On that day it's super Tuesday, they'll all vote at the very same time and and Trump Will be sitting in the gulag courtroom in Washington DC on that same date. Motions for dismissal have been denied and the radical Democrats wanted that side-by-side television moment when, in 15 states, the primaries are being held, they're voting and on the split screen, donald Trump is in a courtroom. They want that advertisement for the fall for their marketing. You can hear it now GOP votes for a convicted felon With the side-by-side picture on television and, interestingly enough, over half of the delegates needed To gain the GOP nomination will be decided by March 5th, so the die will have been cast Now. The next big date will be July 15th in Milwaukee, wisconsin, the site of the Republican Convention. And I just had to pull this quote from an AP article about how the Trump team will deal with any Shenanigans that could happen at the GOP convention due to his 91 indictments. Quote any attempt by any swamp rat, by Any Washington DC swamp rat, to mess with the rules Will some air Lee be crushed by those of us that know how to run conventions, said Trump advisor Chris la Savida, who was a senior consultant in charge of rules and floor operations for the RNC in 2016, a Year when some Trump opponents considered challenging him at the convention. Chris la Savida sounds like a classy guy, doesn't he? One in a million? Note my sarcasm there. And speaking of swamps and swamp rats, perhaps the pot kettle black again here? I Just read, before he went to record this Liberty Minute, I just read that, after winning the Iowa caucuses, mr Trump said this we're also going to pay off the national debt. It's about time. He said. Oh boy, that's the golden oldie. That's the golden oldie that was played all the way through the 2016 campaign. And what did Donald Trump really do for four years as president? Well, he added over 8 trillion to that national debt, and about half of that was COVID. Relief Sounds about right, for mr Trump Even campaigned on lock her up, lock her up, only to say after the election, come on. I really didn't mean that. And then he also campaigned on we will build a big, beautiful wall on our southern border, tremendous wall, incredible wall. We will build a wall and we will make Mexico pay for it. And the reality was Barely half. The wall was built and the Mexico didn't pay for it. And Trump himself wouldn't even fight for his own wall. He wouldn't even fight for allocating for spending for it in 12 different continuing resolutions. This is like WWF wrestling. These leaders, trump and Biden, are just unserious people. It's a total circus. But one thing is for sure, one thing that isn't a circus Is that they are deadly serious about destroying what is remaining of the country. Now back to a serious and by far a more legitimate question Can the Republican Convention Committee make a change if Donald Trump is the nominee but is sitting in jail or Projected to be sitting in jail by November 5th 2024, on election day. Now, I would say, as a parliamentary body, it can work its will one way or another. Now it might be very, very messy, but it can get it done. So what about these legal cases? In front of the Donald, just before you move on, let's ask our question again equing Lincoln, if our Republic will not be taken over by a foreign hostile enemy, but that we will die by suicide, hmm, is this the means of how we die by suicide? In fact, let's ask two more questions. If that is the case, are these the means by how our country will slip over the horizon, meaning, well, our country, our republic, simply slip over the horizon, with the 2024 election being the final battle? Well, we just have show elections after that, where the voters know that their votes really, really don't count. Will we look back at the 2024 election, some two or three election cycles from now, and say, man, that's the election we had to get it right, that's the election where we had to be our best, where we had to get the right candidate at the right time, but we do that. Or will we Simply commit suicide Politically? Now, I put that out as a little teaser to you, because we actually explore these questions more in depth with the book I just completed for an Academy review titled the final battle how the 2024 election could be our last, by David Horowitz. So, members, academy members, be on a lookout, for that should be coming in the next two weeks, once I get caught up on the past reviews. Now let's move on to our second part All about these Supreme Court cases that are involving Donald Trump, who is likely to be the GOP nominee by the summer. So, supreme Court case number one Trump v Anderson. This oral argument will be heard on February 8th. This is the Colorado Supreme Court case that removed Trump from the ballot, which Trump appealed to the Supreme Court. Now this hinges on the interpretation of Of the 14th Amendment and it has ramifications across all 50 states, and Colorado has their GOP primary on March 5th. So this is this is a case it's likely to be done with light speed. Either that or the court will have to make arrangements on how to Conduct the primary if it's still litigating, still deciding the case. Now Supreme Court case number two this is the immunity case that is coming to the Supreme Court. It's coming from Special Counsel Jack Smith. Now there's an indictment and Special Counsel Smith asked the Supreme Court to hear this case. They essentially told him to pound sand. He was going outside the parameters of how you appeal to the Supreme Court. So the proper process actually went forward and it went to the DC Court of Appeals and I'm not sure when this case is going to be held, but it has to be held fairly soon. No matter who loses in this case, it will be appealed to the Supreme Court. You can see both sides indicating that. Now Supreme Court case number three this is the J6 case. Over a thousand rioters have been charged under a statute intended for white collar crime and not for a riot, nor even for an insurrection, which it wasn't an insurrection, and this is the Department of Justice. The Biden Department of Justice has produced the weakest case of all three of these. Now it's still going to affect over hundreds and hundreds of people that are in jail in Washington DC right now, essentially political prisoners. So these three cases have huge ramifications. Now the short answers to all of these is most folks believe the from my research believe the Supreme Court will certainly overturn the Colorado Supreme Court. So that's the first case. The second case gets way more complicated the immunity question. And then there's a double jeopardy question that can come into this, because Trump was already acquitted by the impeachment trial in 2021. So no one knows the outcome of this. And then the third case the Supreme Court is likely to overturn these convictions because the Biden DOJ is way, way outside their bounds in prosecuting these prisoners. Now if you want to hear one of the better podcasts and YouTube channels out there other than mine, why don't have a YouTube channel? Not yet, perhaps coming soon. Little teaser there Other than my podcast. If you want to hear a very good podcast, please check out the speechwriter for Ronald Reagan back in the day, peter Robinson, as he host uncommon knowledge for the Hoover institution. His most recent episode will give you two very well qualified lawyers NYU's law schools, richard Epstein and Berkeley Law School John Yu, who served in the Bush 43 administration. These guys can give you a very good breakdown on all three of these cases, plus the other legal law fair cases. So if you want to get in the weeds and understand the law at its very detail, this is a very good episode. I will put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you. Finally, I also made reference in our title for today's podcast that this could become one of the most unique elections since 1912. So please allow me to elaborate Now. You might say 1912, david. Come on. What in the world? 1912? Yes, you heard that right. That election saw two not only two, but four viable presidential candidates vying for the top office. The year 1912 was, in no uncertain terms, a political whirlwind much like our own. It was an era marked by divisions and debates and unprecedented levels of competition. So imagine an election to set the stage here. Imagine an election where the incumbent president, republican William Howard Taft, was challenged not only by the Democratic candidate, woodrow Wilson, a radical at the time and still to this day, but also by a former president, none other than Theodore Roosevelt, who led the newly established quote progressive party. And then let's not forget the stalwart socialist, eugene Debs, who rallied a significant portion of the population in 1912 under the banner of the Socialist Party. Now, roosevelt split from the Republicans in the subsequent formation of the progressive party was a move that sent shockwaves throughout the political landscape. It was titled the Bull Moose Party fondly. It was born out of Roosevelt's dissatisfaction with Taft and his policies and his burning desire for progressive reform. So, just like in our own day, we have Donald Trump, the former incumbent president, who is running to revenge the stolen election of 2020. I'm not sure if it was stolen, but there was a lot I mean a lot of shenanigans that happened, and they were never adjudicated in any court of law. They were just simply dismissed. So you can understand Donald Trump being angry, and they weren't even given their due time in front of the most powerful body in our land, the Congress, the people's house, based on the Constitution. The riot that broke out on January 6th stopped all that. Now, was it a federal operation?

Hmm.

A lot of questions there never been answered. So the 2024 election is looking eerily like the 1912 election. We have a former president who is angry and wants to correct his record. We have the socialist running, though they are now just called radical Democrats. We have a third party run by Robert F Kennedy Jr, which could throw this election into all kinds of a mess, and plus we have states taking Trump off the ballot, which never happened, even in the pre-Civil War times. Got to remember Lincoln in 1860 never campaigned in the South. Back then you really didn't campaign. Other people would campaign for you and you would have others to help you get on the ballot in that state. None of Lincoln's folks ever ventured into the South to get his name on the ballot. That's why he was never even available to be voted for. So it is a little different than actually removing a candidate after the people have gotten the signatures to put him on the ballot in these respective states. But the 1912 election was a true spectacle, a dramatic display of differing ideologies and battles of personalities, and it was a testament to the vibrancy and the vitality of American democracy. And while Woodrow Wilson may have ultimately claimed victory, the events of 1912 left an indelible mark on the political fabric of our nation. Now we'll be studying more about this very divisive election because it looks like we are careening towards another very divisive election coming this November. So buckwup folks, it is a high stakes election season and we will have pivotal moments such as the Supreme Court cases coming shortly. We will have the flamboyant personalities and those personalities that can barely keep a heartbeat, and we will have the profound consequences that will echo through American political history. If this is, in fact, our last election, let's pray that it is a free and fair election, and also let us pray that Lincoln's Lyceum speech in 1838 wasn't a premonition that will come to pass and that our republic will not die by suicide in the year 2024.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.