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But Henry Clay can only be considered to be a "conservative" if conservatives embrace the economics of national socialism, for that is what Clay devoted his entire forty-year political career to.
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Lincoln was the first Republican president and considered himself the political heir to Clay, whom Lincoln eulogized in 1852 as "the beau ideal of a statesman" and the "great parent of Whig Principles." "During my whole political life," Lincoln stated, "I have loved and revered [Clay] as a teacher and leader.""From the moment Lincoln first entered political life," writes Lincoln biographer Robert W. Johannsen, "he had demonstrated an unswerving fidelity to the party of Henry Clay and to Clay's American System, the program of internal improvements [i.e., corporate welfare for railroad and steamship businesses], protective tariffs, and centralized banking."
Clay was a corrupt statist who spent his political career promoting mercantilism, protectionism, inflationary finance through central banking, and military adventurism in the quest for empire. Upon entering Congress in 1811 he helped persuade the government to attempt to conquer Canada, which it tried to do three times. He waged a thirty-year battle with James Madison, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, and other defenders of the Constitution over federally funded corporate welfare.
National Socialism??!
Wow. So please don't let anybody say DiogenesLamp has grounding in anything resembling historical facts.
Obviously devoted to colorful fantasy over all else.
One can well see DiogenesLamp dreaming of Clay & Webster wearing little mustaches and goose-stepping across the Washington mall.
Hey, if facts don't matter, then anything is possible.