Leaders

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds . . .”  (from Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address)



The Democrats have bumbled and stumbled through the Iowa Caucus, the impeachment trial and one more forgettable candidates’ debate.  And now our president stands at the podium gloating at the Democrat’s ineptness, ridiculing and pointing out by name the political rivals he so easily dismisses as ‘horrible people’.  Democrat or Republican, I look to either side in search of great leaders and I see none.

By consensus, Washington and Lincoln are considered the two greatest American presidents.  With courage and character, each led the country through times of crisis and vulnerability.  When I was a boy, we honored Washington and Lincoln on their birthdays.  A symptom of the times, Presidents’ Day now passes with hardly any notice or fanfare.

George Washington was the undisputed leader of this newly emerging country.  With little opposition he became the first president.  He was described by peers as candid, to the point, and a man of quiet strength.  He rejected ostentatious trappings and titles.  With disdain for unrestrained power, he established many precedents for future presidential behavior and protocol.

Yet, if he were alive today, Washington could not survive the venom of modern politics.  Media would call him aloof and arrogant.  Critics would point to his quick temper.  On camera he would be just a dull and uninteresting public speaker, with bad teeth.

Abraham Lincoln was a remarkable, if not improbable leader.  Rising from the obscure politics of frontier Illinois, he was elected president at the time of this nation’s greatest crisis.  Lincoln has been described as an unpretentious man, quick with words and wit, concerned about people and their problems.  He knew how to utilize the talents of his political rivals and how to turn his rivals into allies.  His moral clarity was unwavering.  If there is heroism in words, never was this more so than in Lincoln’s second inaugural address.  To a nation torn in two, eager for revenge, he spoke instead of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Like Washington, Lincoln too would not succeed in today’s political climate.  He had a strange and awkward appearance.  He was prone to cycles of severe depression.  And he was without the personal wealth it now takes to run a successful campaign.

Great leaders don’t emerge from the malevolent environment of today’s politics.  Many who might be well suited to lead won’t enter the fray. The press, the party henchmen, and the president himself are all too eager to criticize, humiliate, cut down and destroy.  Few candidates survive the gauntlet of our current political process, and none come through unscathed.

I think we need to once again celebrate the lives of Washington and Lincoln.  In order to inspire great leaders, we need to honor these great leaders.  For the sake of our future, we need to remember our past and those who truly made America great.