How honest are we about who Abraham Lincoln was? In his time he was not considered an effective president by many, was prone to depression and had an annoyingly high pitched voice. Yet he was also a great man who took the country through a very rough time – the Civil War. He was martyred on a Friday and eulogized in that Sunday’s sermons all across the country. What if he had lived?
Yesterday I went onto a Web site to find a tap dancing duo – Abe and George – obviously both just tickled silly that the President’s Day sales were just days away.
Every school child knows who Honest Abe was and can tell you in the most cartoony of portraits: ‘He was born in a log cabin he built with his own hands’ (a quote from an actual school kid!). He freed the slaves. He was very tall and wore a top hat.
He is on the money, on Mount Rushmore, seated in his own memorial and immortalized in just too many ways to mention – all ways that reinforce his idealized image. In short, he is an excellent brand on all counts – differentiation, relevance, esteem and reputation.
The latest to co-opt Abe is presidential candidate Barak Obama (dem. Il) who announced his candidacy in front of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. where Abraham Lincoln gave his “House Divided” speech against slavery.
Whether Abraham Lincoln deserved such untarnished reverence will probably never be known. He was a human being just like the rest of us but seeing him as one of us would make his idolatry impossible.
Happy birthday, Abe, honest.
Photo: Little Pitchers, Flickr