Republican logic is entirely illogical. Every time their overt acts of racism are brought to light and questioned they always say the same thing: we are not racists; we cannot be because we are the party of Lincoln.
Only in name, boys. Lincoln would roll over in his grave if he knew what had become of the party he'd helped to found.
Republicans of Lincoln's era were pro big government and pro social justice, while Democrats were in favor of limited government and keeping power concentrated in the hands of whites in general and white men in particular. It was around the early 1900s that party lines first became blurred by a prominent Democrat named William Jennings Bryan.
Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson and a three time presidential nominee, Bryan ushered in a twenty year period wherein the two parties became virtually indistinguishable. It wasn't until the 1930s when Republicans heatedly opposed Democratic rival FDR's (then) radical New Deal that the ideologies of the parties shifted once again, this time coalescing into the polar opposites of what they had been pre-Bryan. Now it was the Democrats who believed in social justice and the role of government while Republicans adhered to a philosophy of limited government and increasing white nationalism.
African-Americans, historically Republican voters up until this time, slowly began to leave what had once been the party of Lincoln to join the party that now was. It took time to make the transition, and understandably so, but black support was more or less cemented via JFK by the time President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The party of Lincoln is now the party of the anti-Lincoln. Never again let a Republican throw shade at the light.
