Lincoln the politician

David Brooks, in his New York Times column yesterday, reflected on the lessons about politics in Steven Spielberg's new movie, "Lincoln."   It portrays the period of Lincoln's presidency from his Gettysburg Address to his Second Inaugural, the time when he was trying to get the 13th amendment passed to end slavery.

The lesson Brooks highlights is the idea that politics is a noble profession when it finds compromises to achieve great ends, like ending slavery or fighting poverty.   Expressing great ideas is the easy part;  legislating them into action is the art of politics.  As he puts it:

"Spielberg's 'Lincoln' gets this point.  The hero has a high moral vision, but he also has the courage to take morally hazardous action in order to make that vision a reality. . . .

"The challenge of politics lies precisely in the marriage of high vision and low cunning. . . .  Politics is noble because it involves personal compromise for the public good. . . . 

"To lead his country through the war, to finagle his ideas through Congress, Lincoln feels compelled to ignore court decisions, dole out patronage, play legalistic games, deceive his supporters and accept the fact that every time he addresses one problem he ends up creating others down the road."

And this ends up with the dilemma:

"[H]ow low can you stoop to conquer without destroying yourself?"

The movie is about Lincoln's pushing the 13th amendment through Congress.

"Lincoln plays each potential convert like a musical instrument, appealing to one man's sense of idealism, another's fraternal loyalty.  His toughest job is to get the true believers on his own side to suppress themselves, to say things they don't believe in order not to offend the waverers who are needed to get the amendment passed. . . .

"Toward the end of the civil war, Lincoln had to choose between two rival goods, immediate peace and the definitive end of slavery.  He had to scuttle a peace process that would have saved thousands of live in order to achieve a larger objective. . . . 

"Politicians who can navigate such challenges really do emerge with the sort of impressive weight expressed in Lincoln's Second Inaugural.  It's a speech that acknowledges that there is moral ambiguity on both sides.   It's a speech in which Lincoln, in the midst of the fray, is able to take a vantage point above it, embodying a tragic and biblical perspective on human affairs."

It all makes our current political squabbles seem so paltry and purile.   I think Barack Obama is capable of the kind of wisdom and balance that Lincoln embodied, but I cannot think of anyone on the Republican side that comes anywhere close to that capacity for greatness as a leader.

It sounds like a must-see movie.

Ralph