Speaking of bogus Lincoln quotations…
October 29th, 2008 at 02:11pm Pat Cunningham
In a PREVIOUS POST today, I dealt with a certain phony Lincoln quotation, one of countless such fictions attributed to our 16th president by conservatives trying to make some point or another.
One of my favorites (and one of the most popular) in this category is something called “Lincoln’s Ten Cannots.” It reads as follows:
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
In reality, Lincoln never said any such thing. The words were written by a preacher and pamphleteer, the Rev. William Boetcker — 51 years after Lincoln’s death.
But the truth of the matter probably will never stem the spread of this stuff under the label of Lincolnisms, especially in this age of the Internet.
On any given day, you can find the “Ten Cannots” on somebody’s blog or in somebody’s e-mail. Just today, I found them HERE and HERE and HERE.
Some right-wingers use the Cannots as fodder against Barack Obama, a laughable irony considering that the Illinois senator has more in common with Lincoln than any of these ill-educated extremists.
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1. SNuss | October 29th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
More in common with Lincoln? Other than living in Illinois, and running for President, that’s about it for Obama.
Too bad he doesn’t follow the examples of Lincoln with his “Spreading the Wealth” Socialist policy.
Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.
Abraham Lincoln
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.
Abraham Lincoln
Or, in his desire for activist judges.
In the startling radio interview, Obama, then a state senator in Illinois, laments that the Supreme Court of the 1960s “didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it has been interpreted.”
“The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of basic issues of political and economic justice in this society,” Obama says.
Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. And not to Democrats alone do I make this appeal, but to all who love these great and true principles.
Abraham Lincoln
2. Pat Cunningham | October 30th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Only SNuss could be this obtuse: This post is about a certain set of bogus Lincoln quotations, including this one: “You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.”
SNuss responds with a comment in which he wrongly attributes to Lincoln this aphorism: “You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.”
In short, SNuss didn’t carefully read the post, or he has the memory of a goldfish.
But then SNuss also lacks the intellect to have recognized by now that the knock against Obama for the radio interview of seven years ago has been roundly refuted by at least three news organizations, as we see here:
http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/2008/10/28/the-latest-mccain-drudge-fox-falsehood/
3. snuss | October 30th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Speaking of bogus…….
AP FACT CHECK: Obama “Infomercial” Avoids Budget Realities
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.
Obama’s assertion that “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond” the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by “eliminating programs that don’t work” masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are — beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
.
A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn’t tell them:
THE SPIN: “That’s why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year.”
THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it’s not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.
THE SPIN: “I also believe every American has a right to affordable health care.”
THE FACTS: That belief should not be confused with a guarantee of health coverage for all. He makes no such promise. Obama hinted as much in the ad when he said about the problem of the uninsured: “I want to start doing something about it.” He would mandate coverage for children but not adults. His program is aimed at making insurance more affordable by offering the choice of government-subsidized coverage similar to that in a plan for federal employees and other steps, including requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers.
THE SPIN: “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond their cost.”
THE FACTS: Independent analysts say Obama would deepen the deficit. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Obama’s policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years — and that analysis accepts the savings he claims will come from some unspecified “spending cuts“. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, whose other findings have been quoted approvingly by the Obama campaign, says: “Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years.” The analysis goes on to say: “Neither candidate’s plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified.”
THE SPIN: “Here’s what I’ll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we’ll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. “
THE FACTS: His proposals — the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more — cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged — although not in his commercial – that: “The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals.”
Source: http://ridgeliner7.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/ap-fact-check-obama-infomercial-avoids-budget-realities/
4. SNuss | October 30th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
BTW, Pat.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.
Abraham Lincoln
Source:http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin173229.html
Also: http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=31
5. Richard Pinney | November 3rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
One of the Boetcker “Cannots” turned up as a Lincoln quote in a letter to the Editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. These quotes end up in email signature lines and blogger tags like historical spam.
Another mangled quote appeared in this letter, also currently littering the right wing blogosphere. The misquote goes like this:
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them” ~Thomas Jefferson
What he actually wrote was: “If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence [sic] of taking care of them, they must become happy.”
The “I predict” version makes it look like Jefferson saw the future and conservatives extend that to mean a future with liberals, Obama, socialism etc.
In this same letter containing the oft-quoted bit about “wasting the labors of the people”, Jefferson wrote, presciently:
“As men become better informed, their rulers must respect them the more. I think you will be sensible that our citizens are fast returning, from the panic into which they were artfully thrown, to the dictates of their own reason; and I believe the delusions they have seen themselves hurried into will be useful as a lesson under similar attempts on them in future.”
I love the almost Shakespearean line, “the panic into which they were artfully thrown”
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