In Paul Ryan’s word string he gave in response to the SOTU there was this odd reference to Abraham Lincoln:
Their day of reckoning has arrived. Ours is around the corner. That is why we must act now.
Some people will back away from this challenge. But I see this challenge as an opportunity to rebuild what Lincoln called the “central ideas” of the Republic.
Even in the context of Ryan’s word string this citation of Lincoln makes no sense at all, but if you go back the the speech where Lincoln describes what he defines as the “central ideas” of the Republic–then Ryan’s word string seems all the more disconnected from historical reality: