What makes a great politician?

[David Lockmiller]

(01-02-2018 01:17 AM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  A very healthy ego is required to believe one can take on the job of leading an entire nation, especially in times of great turmoil . . . .

I, too, have always thought that it was amazing that a country lawyer from the far West would have the courage and the "healthy ego" to take on such a monumental task under such tremendously difficult circumstances that the nation faced at the time. He had only the experience on the national level of one undistinguished term in the House of Representatives.

The only way that I can account for such courage was his own conviction that the leadership alternatives for the country at the time were unacceptable for the continuation of this democracy. If Lincoln had not run for the Senate seat from Illinois in 1858 and held the series of debates with Douglas, I believe that Senator Douglas would have become President of the United States and taken this nation on a path that would have ended democracy.

Senator Douglas gambled on winning the presidency by yielding to southern Democrats on the extension of slavery issue. He led the northern efforts to end the Missouri Compromise and its limitations on extension of slavery. And, Abraham Lincoln re-entered national politics on this issue that was critical for the future of a democratic nation (England had already ended its slave trade practices). Lincoln was right in both his statements made in his "house divided" speech and his perception of a conspiracy theory that there were high-ranking individuals in all the branches of the government who were eager and willing to make slavery legal in the North, as well as, the South.

Lincoln had the courage to take a stand at a critical time in history. And, he was absolutely the right man for the task.