Steven Spielberg's sprawling, fascinating film Lincoln opens today with Daniel Day-Lewis starring as our 16th president. Even though Lincoln was a Republican, the film's screenwriter Tony Kushner told the Hollywood Reporter that the Great Emancipator would scarcely recognize his party now.
"The Republican Party today has turned into a group of people who don’t actually believe that government is a good thing. You can’t have any connection to Abraham Lincoln if you think that. Lincoln was a lawyer who had a profound belief in the conviction that government was a great blessing for humanity, and he certainly wouldn’t have read Ayn Rand. He wouldn’t have had any interest... He was a progressive, centrist candidate who believed in government, taxation, created the federal income tax, created the federal bank, created the draft, believed in a strong federal government and believed in equality, believed that the government had a role to play in protecting in minorities from the majority and tyranny."
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose book Team of Rivals, provides the basis for the film, concurs.
"The Republican Party and the Whig Party, of which Lincoln was a member, believed that government had a role in helping to move the country forward through building dams and dredging rivers and making harbors better, and the transcontinental railroad, much like what we call stimulus today. He also believed government had a role in helping people rise to the level of their talent in their discipline, that sort of equal-opportunity role, in that sense he might find the principles of the Democrats congenial.
FWIW, I saw Lincoln last week and was thoroughly knocked out. The performances are uniformly superb (particularly Day-Lewis, who may have stamped the role for all time) and Kushner's wonderful script manages to make the political machinations behind the passage of the 13th Amendment (which abolished slavery) into propulsive drama. Lincoln is a big, smart movie about our messy democracy and I can't wait to see it again. (Plus? Lincoln knew how to tell a joke.)
Have you seen it? Consider this your Lincoln thread for the people, by the people, etc.
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Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
Abraham Lincoln
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin101395.html#EXW78W6UGuE3SFSr.99
In case anyone is interested there are two great Civil War exhibitions at the Huntington Library, Art Collection & Botanical Gardens
A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Mourning & Memory in the American Civil War
http://huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary_02.aspx?id=10456
A Just Cause: Voices of the American Civil War
http://huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary_02.aspx?id=10454
Both have a lot of Lincoln material. I am not trying to advertise I just wanted people to know in case you see the movie want to know more and just happen to live or will be visiting Southern California.
Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Rd
San Marino, CA 91108
www.huntington.org
The link for A Strange and Fearful Interest isn't working. Hopefully this one will work
http://huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary_02.aspx?id=10456
Thanks but I live in South Carolina and there are walking talking relics from the "unpleasentry" all around me.
Twp weeks ago I swam up to the Huntington to see both exhibitions. If you are in the area I highly recommend taking the trip.
I can see Fort Sumter from my house!(well I could if I had the ambition to climb to the top of that old oak tree out front)
^Now, even if that is not snark, you are hilarious!!!
Would I go for a laugh at Palins expense? Yes, yes I would.
Looking forward to seeing it soon. Love Doris Kearns Goddwin and if it is based on her book, Team of Rivals, I'm sure it's got to be good. One thing of note, when any Republican refers to his party as the "party of Lincoln", I cringe at the total ignorance of the individual.
If Lincoln were alive to hear that he would go get Teddy Roosevelt to help kick the crap out of the guy.
If you haven't seen it you have to check out Doris Kearns Goodwin on Stephen Colbert talking about her book and the movie.
What a great man he was! What a great writer Doris Kearns Goodwin is!
Too bad the party of Lincoln fell so far from what it was.
The way Lincoln was able to, with very low percentage of vote totals and a very divisive era, gather consensus on a number of issues. No one has ever come close. A few, lately, JFK and RR, possibly Clinton in his second term, have had success, albeit in much less turbulent times. Others, current administration included, have not chosen to cross the aisle for consensus. They've chosen to use the "stick in the eye" approach.
After the 2004 election I felt awfully pessimistic about democracy. Then I went to a library and got the collected letters and speeches of Abraham Lincoln. What an incredibly intelligent and focused mind, yet so utterly human in his compassion and his own emotional frailties. We as a country now should know how fortunate we are that he came along, and that he was chosen to be president, when he was. Highly recommended reading.
Each vote counts. Lincoln only got 39% of the vote, and the rest was split three ways.
Remember that one time when we had the Republican party of Abe Lincoln and Martin Luther King in today's time? Yea me neither, but Republicans did however make an ad saying "SEE, SEE!!! ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS FOR BLACK PEOPLE SO VOTE FOR US BLACK PEOPLE" Shocking that the republican party of today is the party of Nixon and Reagan.
We DO have the Republican party of Lincoln and MLK; it's just called the Democratic party.
Touche'
Clothed In Immense Power!
http://earthisland.com/progressivebumperstickers/liberal_bs/562.jpg
Lincoln was able to pursue a progressive agenda because he was weighed down by a bunch of @}#% southern senators.
"The Republican Party today has turned into a group of people who don’t actually believe that government is a good thing."
I beg to differ on this point, the Republican Party today, Loves the government, as long as they Are the Government,, otherwise, not so much,,,,
Will see this movie on Sunday, at the firm recommendation of my mother (I'm in college, for those of you who might have thought I lived in a basement, living off chips and beer). And I bet the DDL performance will be remembered in four scores and seven years...
Lincoln fought the secessionists and people who used states rights as a political theme. He wouldn't recognize the current Republican party because they represent everything that he opposed. Real patriots do not fly the Confederate flag and talk about secession while professing to be a true American.
Lincoln was a Republican and Chaz Bono was a woman.
Anybody who grew up in the states where Lincoln lived knows about his love of story telling and great sense of humor. He developed it as a clerk in a general store in which he also served as the town's postmaster. He got to talked to everybody regularly and knew how to relate to people.
Perhaps Mitt Romney would have fared better if he had pursued a career as a mailman instead of a hostile corporate take over artist? Anyways, it would seem that Ben Franklin might be been as a big influence on Lincoln?
Just saw the movie - an awesome experience, particularly because the parallels to today were so striking.
Saw it Friday afternoon and thought it was spectacular. Lewis was incredible, Sally Fields was wonderful and Tommy Lee Jones should win an Oscar for his supporting role; he almost stole the film they way Nicholson did in a Few Good Men.
Definitely a lot of correlations that can be made to today. I'd recommend it to House Republican's but I'm sure it would be lost on them...
Saw the movie. Ohio democrats were trying to muck things up back then as well.
Poor old Abe. If his soul lives I can see it crying as he watches the new republican party.
He'd be scratching his head wondering why, if he could forge alliances with those crews, why Obama couldn't. I think Lincoln would give him council by telling him that the way to form consensus doesn't allow for meeting with the opposition, then having a press conference spinning the events to make them look bad and trying to bear pressure upon them. Lincoln was a model for both Kennedy and Reagan, and somewhat Clinton in his second term. The opposite of Obama.
Wow Rusty what you don't know about Lincoln could fill a book. Maybe you should look at this
http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/Library/newsletter.asp?ID=109&CRLI=157
Lincoln did not have all that good of a relationship with Congress. You should really read more.
Lol Maria. That's just the point. The lefties on these blogs are sitting around saying that the difference now is the republicans aren't working with Obama. You should think more.
What you and I seem to agree on is neither had any support from congress. One is known as arguably the best president ever. The other whines about no support.
Rusty
Obama exactly imitated Lincoln in his choice of cabinet members.
http://cicerohistory.com/specials/InaugurationDay/04-Team_Of_Rivals.pdf
He did whine about Congress. Obama is far more Lincolnesque the Reagan ever was.
Rusty when I said "he did whine about Congress" I was referring to Lincoln not Obama. See here
http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=6&subjectID=6
Obama did reach out to his rivals in both parties when he was making up his cabinet. Holy moly he even got Hillary Clinton his most contentious rival during the primaries to come on as Secretary of State. There were many Republicans who came onto Obama cabinet. Very Lincolnesque indeed.
Maria- you could write a book about what you evidently don't know about Reagan. He worked more with the opposition than anyone in the last 50 years. He met an Irish kinfolk in Tip O'Neil. He like him a whole lot more than Newt.
Yes, he did build a common cabinet. But then, when it came to govern, was unite the opposite. Pelosi may have said it, but she was directionally correct with Obama when she said that the democrats won, they would write the bill- we'll let you folks know when the vote is, we'll have it, then you can see what's in it.
Lincoln tried to work with Congress. Congress did not work well with him. As far as Reagan is concerned he was my governor for Pete's sake. So I do know a wee bit about him and how he worked with people. I am not fond of Wikipedia but the article of Reagan as Governor of California is pretty good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governorship_of_Ronald_Reagan
He'd never be a Republican nominee for president today.
BTW this is for everyone. The author of the Lincoln biography A. Lincoln Ronald White Jr. has seen this film twice and plans to see it a third time. I can't think of a better recommendation than that. I do I know this? I just asked him about an hour ago.
Likewise, I am a neighbor of Mr Lincoln's house, the Presidential Museum and the gravesite. Have attempted to read everything possible about him. Lived a block away from Governor Oglesby's Mansion for years, as he dined with the Lincoln's on the afternoon of April 14 65 and were to go to the theater with them. You should visit Eureka College just up the road. Reagan's alma mater, huge chunk of Berlin Wall on the courtyard.
Rusty
I work at a place that has the thrid largest collection of Lincoln material in the country. Also I've been to the Reagan Library in Simi. I saw Air Force One and a minture replica of the White House.
The event that brought me there a friend who is a Revolutionary War re-enactor whose regiment is Cornwallis's 33rd foot.
http://www.33rdfoot.org/
Oddly it's a British regiment not an American at the Reagan Library. That's because when they did have a Continental Army regiment one time they were so rude to visitors that they were never asked back. Go figure.
If I am ever back in Illinois I will visit the site you mentioned and pay my respects at President Lincoln's gravesite.
I hit the like key ;-)
I have so little desire to witness the Indiana Jones and the temple of John Williams version of Lincoln. Granted, my view of the film (and yes, it's just a film..) is a preconception but I think I know enough from history books, thanks! Poor Abe indeed, very poor in comparison to whom art cashing in at the box-office. (/rant)
I have just re-read Doris Kearns Goodwin's treatment of the passage of the 13th Amendment by the House of Representatives in 1865 and the related story of the Confederate Peace Commissioners. Generally the movie is true to the book but, as may be expected there is a certain dramatic license taken. There is also a beneficial and enlightening treatment, not in Goodwin's book, of the role of Thaddeus Stevens, played by Tommy Lee Jones. Stevens, long defamed by popular historians and movie makers as an intolerant radical, is depicted as the embodiment of righteous radical wrath and a precursor of modern Americans, who, at a key moment, bends to compromise. It is I think Stevens along with Seward and, of course, Lincoln, who in this movie are portrayed as the good shepherds of the 13th Amendment.
My Civil War re-enactor pards attend "dressed."
http://passionforthepast.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-premier-night-of-lincoln.html
I keep wondering why so many people want to re-enact the worst thing that ever happened in the United States.
Not that you shouldn't, if you want to-- I just don't understand the appeal.
BGC
I know American Civil War reen-actors. Some do because of a love of history. Some do it because they had an ancestor in the War. Some like the military aspects of it. Some like the civilian aspects of it. It's a thing some people like to do.
I can't complain because I re-enact and do living history for a time period and culture some people can't understand why I do it. I do 17th century privateering (read pirate to the enemy). My group does the life and times of the real Henry Morgan. I get asked why I do want to re-enact a time of some dangerous cutthroat. I find that time period and the people in it fascinating. To each her'his own I guess.
Actually what I think would be fun is to go to this movie with a bunch of Lincoln impersonators.
I can't stand most Spielberg movies-- too derivative of movies by better directors, and too cheaply manipulative-- but I may have to see this one.