[ek_hornbeck]

In fairness in the 1830s and 1840s Lincoln was a Whig and there policies favored, for example, lots of government spending on canals and other infrastructure plus tariffs and strong currency. The whig party wasn’t particularly conservative in the sense of “small government” and using their platform from almost 200 years ago isn’t a good analog to today’s GOP.

Investing in infrastructure is a legitimate function of the Federal Government. If minarchist purists had their way, we'd still be driving on dirt county roads rather than using the interstate, and transporting everything on river barges rather than railways.

[pepsi_junkie]

I was not familiar with the word “minarchist” so I learned something. My point is that the whig platform of of the 1840s is not similar in just about any way to the GOP platform of 2016. The GOP, for instance, isn’t advocating a huge investment in public works today like the whigs of that time were. Cherry picking the issue of tariffs from the Whig platform as a comparison to today’s GOP is not really that honest or relevant. That’s all.