3 ms·

Abraham Lincoln, once a hero, is now a bad guy in some S.F. education circles

4 points by autoditype 6y ago

salawat 6y ago
Of all the Presidents to villify, I simply do not understand how anyone could see Lincoln as one with the exception of maybe his treatment of hostile natives, which given the time, and other problems, I can't necessarily say he did anything out of line. If you hate Lincoln, you might as well just hate the United States as a whole. If there was a President who embodied the core American cultural values and fought to keep the entire show together, it was Lincoln. Same with most of the Founders actually. Though I've come to be a lot cooler on Washington, and I acknowledge that Jefferson may rub people the wrong way, no President can turn the country on a dime, and if you didn't like the laws at the time, that was largely the doing of Congress, and by extension, everyone else. The President may be Commander-in-Chief, but he's also the tip of a very large, very ponderous iceberg of a Nation. That doesn't mean they get a free pass by a long shot; but one would be wise to temper one's expectations of what one person, even with the highest level of authority could unilaterally do back then. Now is a completely story though. I highly recommend some of the books on the history of Lincoln. The Eloquent President is a good one, and I"ll have to dig up my other one about how his Cabinet appointee drastically influenced the overall strategy and tactics employed in the Civil War.
- Mauricebranagh 6y ago
  Team Of Rivals maybe?
- BitwiseFool 6y ago
  >"If you hate Lincoln, you might as well just hate the United States as a whole." I think a non-trivial number of activists on the American Left really do feel that way. I get the sense they really do believe that the United States is fundamentally flawed, if not outright evil, because it was built on slavery, patriarchy, whiteness, Native American genocide, etc.. For them, those original sins are unforgivable. This is why you see such a focus on "dismantling" facets of Americana and replacing them with something progressive.

4 points by autoditype 6y ago

Of all the Presidents to villify, I simply do not understand how anyone could see Lincoln as one with the exception of maybe his treatment of hostile natives, which given the time, and other problems, I can't necessarily say he did anything out of line. If you hate Lincoln, you might as well just hate the United States as a whole. If there was a President who embodied the core American cultural values and fought to keep the entire show together, it was Lincoln. Same with most of the Founders actually. Though I've come to be a lot cooler on Washington, and I acknowledge that Jefferson may rub people the wrong way, no President can turn the country on a dime, and if you didn't like the laws at the time, that was largely the doing of Congress, and by extension, everyone else. The President may be Commander-in-Chief, but he's also the tip of a very large, very ponderous iceberg of a Nation. That doesn't mean they get a free pass by a long shot; but one would be wise to temper one's expectations of what one person, even with the highest level of authority could unilaterally do back then. Now is a completely story though. I highly recommend some of the books on the history of Lincoln. The Eloquent President is a good one, and I"ll have to dig up my other one about how his Cabinet appointee drastically influenced the overall strategy and tactics employed in the Civil War.

Mauricebranagh 6y ago
Team Of Rivals maybe?
BitwiseFool 6y ago
>"If you hate Lincoln, you might as well just hate the United States as a whole." I think a non-trivial number of activists on the American Left really do feel that way. I get the sense they really do believe that the United States is fundamentally flawed, if not outright evil, because it was built on slavery, patriarchy, whiteness, Native American genocide, etc.. For them, those original sins are unforgivable. This is why you see such a focus on "dismantling" facets of Americana and replacing them with something progressive.