The results of a poll commissioned by The Economist and conducted by YouGov.com should disturb people: 53 percent of Republicans believe the current occupant of the Oval Office is a better President than was Abraham Lincoln.
After January 20, 2017, spoof headlines began to lose their dynamic of absurdity. Each day brings new examples of incompetence and corruption gratis the individual who, for the time being, is POTUS. I checked and this poll had occurred and the result had been as reported.
President Lincoln held office during one of the most trying and critical times in our history. The Framers of the Constitution had left the problem of slavery, one of the most evil institutions the United States has had, to people down the road.
The Framers wanted to keep the former British colonies together and realized the Articles of Confederation had to be scrapped. They were willing to compromise on many aspects of the form of the new government. The biggest compromise had to do with slavery:
“For the southerners, no goal was greater than the protection of slavery. Without such protection, southern states might not join the new government. At the very least, southern delegates would face ostracism and denunciation if the brought home a Constitution that did not protect slavery. Careers would be ruined.” Stewart, David O., The Summer of 1787., 2007, p. 67. At least 20 delegates to the convention in Philadelphia claimed ownership over other human beings. Some saw hypocrisy in creating a government that espoused liberty, yet protected slavery.
Over the decades between ratification of The Constitution and the elections of 1860, slavery was a constant problem.
Lincoln’s victory in 1860 was the catalyst for States in the south to secede from the Union. Many historians regard him as the greatest President. (CNN, 2017 Presidential Historians Survey.) He signed the Emancipation Proclamation. He pressed for the Constitution to be amended to abolish slavery. His plan for Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War was summed up in the phrase “with malice toward none; with charity toward all” that was part of his second inaugural address, March 4, 1865.
To place the current occupant of the Oval Office on the same level as President Lincoln is absurd. The interim mistaken President of the United States - or IMPOTUS - took that office through intrigue and in a way that disenfranchised a total of American voters three million greater than his opponent. He has been unable to get any major policy through a Congress that was majority GOP in both houses his first two years in office. In foreign policy, every step he takes seems to fit the blueprint of chaos that a foreign dictator, Putin, wants this country to pursue. Lincoln refused to negotiate with leaders of the Confederacy because he did not want to give credibility to those who committed treason. The current occupant of the Oval Office appears to be complicit, at the very least, with acts of treason. Whereas Lincoln sought to bring the country together, dt has told people they can leave this country if they don’t like how he runs things.
This is how far the GOP has fallen. After all, Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President. Some Republican politicians today are afraid to speak out, for fear they will lose favor of dt. This country never has been ruled by a dictator. We cannot surrender half of our political system to idiocy and hatred.