Letter: Not Lincoln's GOP

Our 7th president, Andrew Jackson, was a very wealthy Southern Democrat who owned as many as 300 slaves. The party symbol was created after him, because he was called "jackass" at times. He was not the party of President Abraham Lincoln later which was Republican and had the strong, dignified symbol of the Elephant for the Grand Old Party. In the Civil War, southern "jackasses" were the rebel confederates.

The southern "jackasses" ended up stealing Lincoln's Republican symbol and the party name after their Democratic choice for president, Lyndon Johnson, supported the Equal Rights Amendment in 1965. Southern slave-owning heirs then fled to the Republican Party until they took it over and the strong elephant symbol with it. Democrats inherited the jackass symbol. It's a seldom addressed fact upon which most historians agree.

The irony is that if you support Republicans now, because of the Abraham Lincoln your granddad respected, you are actually, in fact, supporting the original slave-owning party. It then shows why many Trump-base factions still claim white supremacy.

Supported by much of the USA's wealth, slave-owning heirs are still trying to divide our nation, even 150 years after the Civil War. Some are still the domestic terrorist groups and some threaten civil war again. Using Lincoln's good name, they insult him with voter restrictions and restricted liberties. Today, liberals for the common people like Abraham Lincoln are Democrats in name only. They are really the strong elephant that protects freedom and liberty from the wealthy and the racists.

Keith Marvin

Hanover Park