I finally got around to watching the movie Lincoln last night. I figured I would enjoy it and I did. I loved how the movie focused on Lincoln's battle to pass the Thirteenth Amendment. I think the default setting of our society believes the North was fighting for abolishing slavery and the South was fighting to keep it in place. No doubt, to some degree that is true. However, the war was ready to end and the issue of slavery wasn't even going to be addressed. Lincoln fought hard to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, and the people that supported him loved him for it.
One hundred and fifty years later everyone loves Lincoln. However, as loved as he was by the people of his time, he was also hated by half of the country. No other President has reigned during a civil war. Not just a little spat either. More U.S. soldiers died in this war than any other in the history of our nation. Our country was fighting itself in a war for over four years. Hard to believe this would be on the resume of, arguably, one of our best leaders.
My interest in politics isn't the politics. I'm fascinated by people and how they interact with one another, how they perceive reality, how they navigate the universe. It's an amazing thought to ponder that half of our country hated Lincoln and what he stood for so much that they literally went to war with him, coupled with the fact that every single person in our current time loves the man.
Black people were free in the North prior to the Civil War. Surprisingly, there were many free black people in the South during the same time period. In fact, the U.S. Census bureau shows there were more free black people in the South than there were the North. The difference was the North was no longer practicing slavery.
The most remarkable aspect of the Civil War, from a psychological perspective, is the mindset of the citizen of the North. It's easy to imagine the mindset of the Confederate. They were fighting for their "way of life" and to "protect" their livelihoods. One could argue the South even had more at stake in the war. What, then, was the North fighting for? They, too, were fighting for their "way of life". It was quite simply a culture war and slavery, as horrific as it was, was just a part of one of the cultures in the battle.
Examining the equation, trying to figure out how this culture clash reached the point of war, is far more complicated than simply tying it all together with the notion of slavery. I'm going out on a limb and positing one key ingredient that was necessary was a sense by those of the North that they weren't going to be comfortable staying on the same course. Even though they were treating black people the way they thought they should be treated (and they still weren't treated all that great, but at least they respected them as humans enough to want them to be free), they weren't going to have a good conscience about allowing half of their country to still practice crimes against humanity. The citizen of the North did not want to be on the wrong side of history.
It's that one ingredient, the fear of being frowned upon by future generations, that motivated the Union soldier to take up arms against his fellow American. I'm not talking about being looked down upon for things like muscle shirts or disco or CSI episodes or parachute pants or pebble tec in homes. I'm talking about being frowned upon for shameful things that we know will embarrass us in the future. We feel a duty to ourselves, as well as our future generations, to "do the right thing".
We have always had political disagreements. There has not been one President that hasn't faced opposition from about half of the country during his term. That dates back to our country's origin. They do some things we like, they do some things we don't like and we all go about our business. We debate our philosophies and ideologies but we still go about our lives and little changes. But, every once in a while that key ingredient turns up that sparks a culture war.
We may not be in a literal civil war today, but we might as well be. One positive of actual war is we could just get it over with and move on to the reconstruction. It's the construction we're fighting about anyway. So a war could destroy the status quo and the winner could reconstruct it. The issues of today, as controversial as they may seem, have already been decided in the future. We all know that. However, some people, it would seem about half our country, fear this reality and fight to change the history of the future. Gay rights, climate change, healthcare, and things like marijuana won't even exist as divides in the future. We will be frowned upon for not accepting the inevitable. And everything we did fighting over these issues detracted from real issues that our future generations would end up facing. They won't like us for that. Those of us that love our current President, despite all his faults, understand this idea. And even though it's hard to imagine this President as being loved by everyone in the future, I think that's just what the future holds.
Right now (the present) it's easy to point out the flaws. They exist. Some are really obvious. But in the future our present (now) isn't that relevant. What will matter to our future Americans, our great-great-great grandchildren, is the fact he was the one that allowed the future to play out the way they wanted it to. They wanted their bad times, the times when they enslaved people, when they didn't care for their needy, when they discriminated based on sexuality, basically anytime they simply weren't treating people the way they should be treated, to be behind them. And if we truly care about our future generations then we owe it to them to put those times behind them, not ahead of them. That's why Obama is loved by those that support him. That's why he'll be loved by everyone in the future.
Abraham Lincoln's push to get the Thirteenth Amendment passed was a good step in the right direction. However, it wasn't the perfect fix. Many of the cultural changes Obama has pushed for are a step in the right direction. Just like it took the 14th, 15th, 19th, and 24th Amendments to address additional rights of equal voting, I think it will take a lot of tinkering to our current laws, very new ones, to get them in working order. But at least we're headed in the right direction.
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