In line with last week’s article, here is another one on thinking about a conversation with a historical person. Since the topic of the year is the election, that got me thinking about any politicians from the past that would have been able to help with how society is going when it comes to this presidential election. The person that I would believe could have helped this nation get through the election if they were to magically appear, bending space and time, would be Abraham Lincoln.
Although Lincoln gets mentioned quite a bit when it comes to “people you would have liked to talk to” type things, I do believe that Lincoln would have showed his merit in a situation like the one we find ourselves in. Our country is currently divided between two political parties, with each side fearing the worst from the other if their nominee were to win. While this is certainly a basis for this fear of each other’s candidate, the extreme version of what we find ourselves in is what happened during the election that Lincoln won. The Southern Democrats were scared that if the Republican Nominee, Abraham Lincoln, won, it would mark the end of slavery. Their fears were correct because Lincoln would later famously proclaim the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves in the southern states. So, there was a very real divide in the 1860 Presidential election - the Democratic Party split into two parties for this election, Northern Democrats (with Stephen Douglas) and the Southern Democrats (with John Breckenridge). While the political parties of today have not gotten to that extreme, there are clear divisions within the parties - with Democrats torn over Clinton or Sanders and a fraction of the Republicans against Trump (led by Mitt Romney).
I would inform Lincoln of the situation facing the country in the election and ask about his steps to reform the union politically during and the short part after the war. Especially the party that he was the first President for - the Republicans. His views on what is what his party has become, for better or for worst, would prove to be very interesting. On the matter of party division, his advice would be helpful. Currently, many Republican leaders that were once against Trump -- like House Speaker Paul Ryan and failed nominee Marco Rubio -- have pledged that they would support Trump in an effort to keep the party together.
I would like to ask Lincoln if keeping a party together is more important than doing what you know is right. Shouldn’t you stand against Trump if you disagree with him? Or should you stand by him to save face to the voters and keep the party together? The goal of a political party is to win elections, but where do morals stand in that, especially since Republicans like Ryan and Rubio have gone back on what they used to state about Trump? That’s what I would ask Lincoln, since he knew a thing or two about houses being divided.
Because of the extremity of the situation that Lincoln had to deal with, preventing anything similar to that would be something Lincoln would be able to do something about. But alas, he cannot specifically tell us what he would do in our certain situation. What we can do, however, is study his political life, especially civil war era, and see the effects that huge division can cause and hope to prevent anything similar from happening.
