Political Debate the Old Way

Last night Bobbi and I went to see "Amazing Grace" which is about the long struggle by House of Commons member William Wilberforce to end the slave trade in 18th Century Britain. Just before we left for the movie I had been reading "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kerns Goodwin. The book is about Abraham Lincoln's ascent to the Presidency in 1860 and his rivals for the post. He appointed most of his rivals to his Cabinet after being elected.

The book and the movie are very emotional accounts of great struggles and the state of political debate in those times. Although the political debate could get as nasty then as now there were some glaring differences. A candidate or advocate was judged generally by their ideas and their oratorical skills in conveying those ideas. Their speeches could last for four hours as they meticulously laid out their logic and passion on an issue. Also, those speeches were carried by the newspapers of the day and virtually everyone who could read would dutifully and religiously read the accounts of those speeches. Many of the Newspapers were subsidized by political parties and so there were plenty of newspapers with different points of view. The key here was that people loved to read.

Some of the speeches and letters written by Lincoln and his rivals are masterpieces. I had always thought Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was the most succinct thing I had every seen in print, and beautiful at the same time. If you read Lincoln's letters to his friends they are just as powerful. These letters by and between Lincoln and his rivals also show how human they were. They were depressed much of the time, or insecure, or just plain worked to the bone.

I would love to see the human side of our candidates over the next two years. We don't need the highly produced and edited sound bites of these folks, nor their trying to be on all sides of all issues. That wasn't a problem for Wilberforce, Lincoln and his Rivals because they weren't afraid to show their principles. They key word here is principles.

I recommend both this movie and book to everyone to get an idea of the kind of political debate we must return too American politics. If we do that then we might not ever again end up with another person like we have running this country now, because we will have learned again that some politicians have no principles.