After just over a year in office his presidency seems doomed. No one is happy with him. He doesn’t go far enough. He goes too far. He compromises too easily. He’s cold and distant. The country has polarized to a point where reaching out to both sides seems an impossible and thankless task. The President lacks the necessary experience and worldliness to get the job done. He actually appointed rivals to his cabinet. Many citizens unrealistically look to him to solve all of the big problems. Others deeply hate him. Many fear for his safety.
I’m sure that it isn’t easy to be President Obama. He has a huge job. I myself get frustrated that he seems to drag his feet on, say, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” the policy which prohibits gays and lesbians from serving their country in the armed forces. I wanted to throttle him when he kept compromising on health care reform. And the news this week reports criticism that he seems restrained in his reaction to the Gulf Coast disaster. His practiced and tempered language doesn’t reflect the outrage of the nation.
I hope President Obama takes some comfort in knowing that all of the statements above were also bestowed upon another President, Abraham Lincoln. As I wandered through the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield today, I kept seeing Obama as a similar recipient of the vitriol heaped upon Lincoln. For example, discussion of allowing African Americans to serve in the army alongside whites mirrors “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”: there was intense fear that the morale and discipline of the troops would erode so much that national security would be threatened.
The museum does a terrific job of presenting Lincoln in the context of the politics, events, and even technology of the time.
Often, the flesh and blood part of Lincoln’s life is overwhelmed by myth. It behooves us to remember that while he was indeed a very great President, he was also a human being. He suffered nightmares and the deaths of his children. He was regularly exasperated with his wife. He had a wicked, even lewd, sense of humor. He was a brilliant politician who could spin the truth in order to appease rivals. We conveniently forget that some of his views were uncomfortably different from our own. For example, while he advocated the abolition of slavery, he didn’t view African Americans as truly equal. His thought was that after emancipation, it would be best if they all returned to Africa.
Abe Lincoln is a little like Jesus Christ in that everyone wants to remake him in their own image. Just take your predetermined beliefs and justify them by telling everyone how Lincoln would agree with you. 21st Century discussion of Lincoln reflects our current concerns rather than anything he would have thought about. Anti-abortionists claim him as an emancipator of the unborn. Lincoln is said to have suffered from depression or bipolar disease (clinical terms which weren’t in use at that time). I’m amused at the vehement discussion about whether he had sexual relations with other men. Why is it so important to assure ourselves either way? In fact, though he did share a bed with his friend Joshua Speed, we will never know for sure what, if anything, happened between those sheets and frankly, what difference does it make?
Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, and the rest of us are reflections of our own times and cultures. But while the issues change from decade to century, we continue to struggle with how to be a nation of free people.
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