On Obama and Lincoln, with dashes of FDR

Yes, Lincoln is an American icon associated with the ending of slavery. But it should also be remembered that Lincoln was a product of his time- a white supremacist whose motivation for ending slavery was based on economics, not on an overwhelming desire to treat Africans with dignity and respect. Lincoln did not even want freed slaves to remain on American soil.

I urge everyone to do their own reading of firsthand historical resources to learn about Lincoln's views in his own words. Read his speeches yourself. Times were different back then, but to gloss over Lincoln's disparaging views about African people is a tremendous disservice to everyone.

But we are not permitted to remind people of that.  One of the axioms our country thrives on is the unstated belief that all of our presidents were good men, and most of them grew in office.  This country has never been good at facing the unpleasant facts about itself.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.  -Archbishop Desmond Tutu

At the risk of sounding catty, I will observe that death, particularly one that could be called martyrdom, does wonders for the careers of politicians as well as artists. "Now [that] he belongs to the ages" (or "the angels" --there being some dispute over the original utterance and the speaker's subsequent revision of it), Lincoln is promoted to statesman. As the voice of Morgan Freeman reminds me, even Frederick Douglass pointed out this difference in the aftermath of the assassination:

...Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, indifferent. But, measuring him by the sentiment of his country--a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult--he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined. Taking him all in all, measuring the tremendous magnitude of the work before him, considering the necessary means to ends, Infinite Wisdom has seldom sent any man better fitted for his mission than Abraham Lincoln.

Douglass remark seems to imply that Lincoln went as far as he dared and was restrained by public opinion, and that he might not have had his presidential position had he been more of a "genuine" abolitionist. Of course some, including historian Barbara Fields, aren't so willing to cut Lincoln some slack. Likewise, we may be debating indefinitely whether political expediency has kept Democrats generally (and the Obama campaign in particular) from expressing wholehearted support for gay rights in general and same-sex marriage in particular.

I take some comfort from the idea that Obama identifies with Lincoln. It opens him to assertion that as Lincoln found a way to emancipate at least some of the slaves (admittedly under the pressures of war), so Obama should be able to find a way to ensure civil rights for everybody. People act on their own beliefs; if he buys the comparison and is sufficiently ambitious (a good supposition, considering he has gotten this far), I think he is susceptible to the idea of improving upon Lincoln. Then it merely remains to persuade him to do so by expending some of his resources (charisma, political capital, etc.) in our defence. Then our problem is how to do this without being defeated by political or economic events.

"More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read." -- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest