Wouldn’t Lincoln laugh at today’s politics?

Bill Knight column for 2-10, 11 or 12, 2020

Despite being name-dropped by both President Trump and his lawyer Alan Dershowitz in a matter of days, Abraham Lincoln probably is NOT rolling in his grave.

As the world marks the 291^st anniversary of his birth this week, Honest Abe is more likely rolling in laughter.

Trump almost off-handedly included Lincoln in a list of historical figures in last week’s State of the Union speech, and Dershowitz during the impeached president’s sham Senate trial cited Lincoln in a bizarre argument that U.S. presidents can do anything they want if they think an act – no matter its constitutionality – is in the “public interest.”

Claiming that during the Civil War President Lincoln “told General Sherman to let the troops go to Indiana so that they can vote for the Republican Party,” Dershowitz argued before the Senate, “let’s assume the president was running [for re-election] at that point, and it was his electoral interest to have these soldiers put at risk the lives of many other soldiers who would be left without their company. Would that be an unlawful quid pro quo?”

(“Seems like it,” chuckled one downstate columnist from the Land of Lincoln, “– but do you have witnesses?”)

As shown in Richard Carwardine’s book “Lincoln’s Sense of Humor,” released in paperback this fall, Lincoln would probably get a kick out of the authoritarian direction enabled by what’s being called the Dershowitz Doctrine.

“At its gentlest best,” Carwardine wrote, “Lincoln’s humor reflected an appreciation of the foibles, weaknesses and absurdities of humankind.”

There’s plenty of that around.

Of course, for centuries there were leaders who valued humor, whether from court jesters or shamans with tricks up their sleeves. But leaders themselves weren’t always funny themselves – nor have senses of humor. Did Germans tell many Hitler jokes in the 1930s? Did Apaches spoof Geronimo in the 1860s? It’s hard to imagine Attila or Augustus, Mussolini or Mao, Al Capone or El Chapo appreciating a comical look at themselves.

But Lincoln had a knack for self-mockery, Carwardine said. The 16^th president saw silliness in himself as well as the countless tales he enjoyed sharing – anecdotes often with life lessons almost as insightful as New Testament parables.

“Lincoln’s exceptional memory and clear fascination with the human experience provided him with a seemingly inexhaustible repertoire of jokes and humorous stories,” commented Christian McWhirter of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. “When paired with his belief in fairness and remarkable ability to pick out a cogent lesson from seemingly any situation, they became his most valuable rhetorical tools.”

Besides teaching in self-deprecating and amusing ways, Lincoln’s stories and jokes became a key part of how he created and strengthened ties to others, from cranky cabinet officials to ambitious generals.

Often oversimplified and romanticized, Lincoln was burdened with the war and slavery, plus a genuine empathy for the common person.

“Lincoln’s intrinsic humor was that of a humanitarian and helped contribute to turn his stature as president into statesmanship,” according to a Civil War Book Review article on this book by Carwardine, an Oxford University professor emeritus as well as Lincoln scholar.

John David Smith, author of “Lincoln and the U.S. Colored Troops,” said, “Carwardine interprets Lincoln’s propensity for the jocular, especially his use of self-effacing stories, as an essential part of his humanity, a means of dealing with life’s ups and downs.”

Today’s Trump Republicans might shock Lincoln, but he’d at least smile. After all, Lincoln helped establish the Republican Party after giving up on Democrats’ previous opponent, the Whigs. (Lincoln also might be having a real knee-slapping time at Iowa Democrats’ apparent inability to count.)

Maybe it will take some good, old-fashioned comedy, as well as perspective and hope, to replace what’s left of the GOP with a new empathetic force tied to regular Americans – and a Democratic Party also in touch with ordinary people more than the Donor Class).

That 21^st century “Battle Hymn of the Republic” could put grins on a lot of faces.