Opinion: Republicans who identify with Lincoln, Roosevelt need to take back their party

The Republican Party began as the party of Lincoln. Lincoln is remembered and revered for his determination to hold the union together.

From an early age, Lincoln viewed slavery as wrong, but his role as an emancipator grew as the Civil War raged on. These two efforts were brought together with his Gettysburg address when he spoke of "by the people and for the people" and traced the origins of this nation back to the Declaration of Independence that contains the phrase "all men are created equal" and not back to the Constitution of the United States, which contained compromises on slavery. However, what we often fail to acknowledge is that Lincoln was responsible for the intercontinental railroad and the creation of the land grant colleges.

Some 36 years later, Lincoln was followed by Theodore Roosevelt. Unlike his cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, who later was stricken with polio, Theodore was a somewhat sickly child who was determined to overcome and defeat his physical ailments which, for the most part, he did. However, his life continued to be a life of overcoming obstacles. In 1884, he lost both his wife and his mother on the same day, Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day). Realizing that the deaths of his wife and mother were likely associated with the filth of New York City, he turned his attention to reform. His efforts did not sit well with some political elites who eventually decided to bury him by nominating him to the vice presidency of the United States, a job with no power other than residing over the Senate. However, President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, making Theodore Roosevelt the youngest president in the country’s history. The party elites referred to him as the cowboy in reference to the time he spent cattle ranching in the Dakotas.

Theodore Roosevelt went on to reform the working conditions for children and women, which he referred to as a Square Deal, and followed that effort with a reformation of big businesses. In his opinion, big businesses had become too big and too powerful when it came to determining the government’s priorities. With all this said, both Lincoln and Roosevelt had imperialistic tendencies.

Theodore Roosevelt was followed several administrations later by his cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, who managed to wrench the Democratic Party from the clutches of the confederacy and moved it toward a party of reform. Some administrations later, Lyndon Johnson built upon the work of Franklin Roosevelt to give us the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

In summary, two Republican presidents along with two Democratic presidents were driven by related causes to make this country a better place for its citizens. It is a wonderful example of presidents taking power and using that power to serve people. None of this was accomplished during easy times, as these were indeed very hard times. Lincoln struggled to keep a country together. Theodore Roosevelt went up against those whom his family considered to be peers in an effort to support the little guy. Franklin Roosevelt was battling a depression and a war. Lyndon Johnson, a southerner, was challenging the long established abuses of the Jim Crow laws.

Some 50 years after Johnson, we find ourselves in a different political environment. One party in particular has abandoned the idea of using power to make life better for the common people. Instead, power is used to benefit the powerful, sometimes at the expense of those without power. Cultural wars are fought not so much out of principle but more in an effort to obtain the support of the less fortunate for goals that benefit the more fortunate. Radical groups such as The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have asserted themselves. Racism is on the rise. Antisemitism is on the rise. Immigrants are demonized.

It is time for those members of the Republican Party who identify with people of the past such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and John McCain to rise up and take their party back. It might cost the party elections in the short term, but in the long term it is for the health of this nation. We need a healthy conservative voice in government.

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Lee Sease lives in Burnsville. He is a former Superintendent of Schools in Middlebury, Vermont.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Republicans must take back their party, work for the people