At the three-day
Republican Leadership Conference
the Republican National Chairman
Reince Priebus asked
"Why does the party
of Abraham Lincoln
not get more credit
as the party of tolerance?"
Lest we forget
Lincoln's calculating pragmatism
that conveniently brought down
the institution of human ownership
in the process
it's still true that those
who cannot remember
the past of thirty years
fifteen years
six years
or even six days ago
are condemned to repeat it
and those that have never listened
to Janet Jackson's 1986 hit
"What Have You Done
for Me Lately?"
are doomed to hear
a larger and larger proportion
of society
blast the infectiously
forboding tune
and leave the Old Party.
(It was Grand
while it lasted.)
This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.