For context, this is from the trailer from the Divided States of America spin-off miniseries (from the Kaiserreich universe from Hearts of Iron mods). It casts the Combined Syndicates of America (the socialist faction in the civil war) in a mostly negative light because something something warcrimes something something revolution is bad.
Yeah, i dont think its based, lincoln shouldn’t be up there
To add to what others have said, the Lincoln head is pretty much in line with the lore. The CSA see themselves as the latest (and most radical) iteration in the pursuit of actual “liberty” in American history, as well as the eradication of liberal democracy’s many contradictions, which naturally leads to Socialism. Yes, it’s lib and all to try to reconcile a settler-colonial project like America, but given that they’re burning said settler-colonial project to the ground and building on top of its ashes, it could be worse. There’s also the pragmatic value since outright disowning America would only embolden reactionaries.
It’s not that weird when you look at our history, anyway. Just look at the CPUSA in its relative prime. Even the Bolsheviks didn’t make a clean break from Russian patriotism and history. Why else would they wear those silly-looking hats in the Russian Civil War?
Socialist movements in the USA already did use Lincoln in their imagery, often simultaneously with people like Lenin.
I mean I would expect that any successful american socialist movement uses american imagery, particularly of people viewed as liberators and the founding fathers. “We’re continuing along the path the founding fathers and lincoln laid down for us by liberating America from capitalism”
Well Lincoln is rightfully being seen as less and less of a “liberator” as historical study progresses. Black slaves were defecting and joining the Union army in large rates, taking emancipation and remuneration into their own hands to great extent. The Emancipation Proclamation really was a formalization of an already undergoing social revolutionary process of self emancipation, and one that Lincoln only undertook reluctantly because his mission in fighting the Civil War was never in ending slavery but in preserving the Union. That’s why he said if he could have preserved the Union without freeing a single slave, he would have.
This is a large reason why I find the “procession of heads” in ML imagery rather strange, but especially ones that are retconned to include these dork ass fantasies about Lincoln representing some radical Republican agenda that was really self consciously emancipatory. Lincoln was kind of a dumb shit milquetoast liberal tbh. And his political miscalculations and unwillingness to pursue a radical break with entrenched American institutions including slavery led to a lot of misery and injustice that persists to the present day.
Like if you want a procession of heads from the American Republicans, do like Thaddeus Stevens or something. Lincoln was just straight up not that great.
If historical dialectics teaches us anything it’s that we never get that clean break we all want. Gotta go through a lot of shit to get to the inevitable light at the end
Based on the imagery I’m imagining an alternate history where Lincoln goes communist and less bigoted.
