President Barack Obama this week called Abraham Lincoln “our greatest president.” In the past eight years, some have voiced profound disappointment in Obama’s presidency. One reason? Commentator Elizabeth Vozzola, who teaches at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford, says many hoped Obama would be the next Lincoln.
Even before Abraham Lincoln became president, he was very much a man of the mind, a self-taught legal genius. He’d dabbled in politics, but had turned away from them. However, events in 1854 changed him profoundly. With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, it now seemed likely slavery, which Lincoln abhorred, would become legal. Perhaps even throughout the entire country.
It was in that moment that Lincoln developed fully into what we psychologists call his “mature moral self,” when morals become central to who we are and inform all we do. Lincoln re-entered politics, dedicating himself to the moral necessity of abolishing slavery. Despite crushing life losses, conniving cabinet colleagues, and a troubled wife, Lincoln held the union together and ultimately did free the slaves.
Has President Obama affected that sort of sweeping change? His initial steps on important issues like health care, immigration and climate change, often seemed to reflect a resigned pragmatism rather than an unshakable moral commitment.
Recently, however, Obama seems to have arrived at a moral turning point similar to Lincoln’s in 1854. His executive actions on gun control and his State of the Union address both revealed a new and confident sense of steely purpose.
Using moral language reminiscent of Lincoln’s famous first inaugural, Obama’s words directly appeal to Americans’ better angels.
“That’s the America I know. That’s the country we love. Clear-eyed. Big-hearted. Optimistic that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”
Lincoln once famously called on Americans to “strive on and finish the work we are in.” Maybe Obama has finally decided to do just that.
Commentator Elizabeth Vozzola, who recently co-wrote an analysis of Lincoln’s “moral self,” doesn’t think of Lincoln just once a year. Her house is filled with Lincoln books, art and memorabilia. Today, February 12th, Lincoln’s birthday, Vozzola’s husband, a Civil War scholar, brings her flowers, as he does every year on this day.