The more things change, the more things change.

Consider, for example, the remarks of a rather well known Republican leader, speaking in 1865 on the eve of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox:

Both [sides] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other . . .

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Fast forward 150 years, and imagine how Republican leaders of 2015 would react to these words. It’s hard to believe that they’d be comfortable with delivering them as written, you know, so a re-write is obviously needed . . .

Both [sides] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, but only our side reads the Bible right. . . .

With malice toward some¹, with charity for none², with firmness in the right since God gave it to us to see the right³, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to ignore the nation’s wounds⁴, to turn our backs on him who battled against us and his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting victory over those who dare to stand against us, here at home and around the world.⁵

Welcome to the 2016 presidential campaign, in which I fully expect someone from the GOP to propose a return to Plessy v Ferguson to defend religious liberty, and a restoration of the states’ rights attitude that caused Mr. Dred Scott a bit of inconvenience, and a repeal of the 19th amendment to the US constitution, because in the eyes of the GOP of 2015, it’s a man’s job to take care of the women. (Sorry, Carli.)

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¹ LGBTs, for instance: see here and here (Santorum warning).

² especially the lazy and shiftless poors, and most especially those who are blah

³ See Brownback, Sam; Graham, Franklin; and all the presidential hopefuls, with a special shout-out to Bobbie Jindal

⁴ See the GOP and the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Head Start, . . .

⁵ From Unconditional Surrender to American Jihad, Ted Cruz edition. But remember: it’s Never About Race (h/t Mr. Pierce)

h/t to Joey Gannon for the photo above, and used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.