Lincoln’s record would serve him well among some segments of today’s electorate, however.
He was critical of interventionist foreign wars (which would no doubt win him points among Ron Paul supporters).
He also took several actions to curtail civil liberties in the name of national security. During the Civil War he implemented military tribunals for civilians, suspended habeas corpus, and authorized indefinite detention of persons deemed to pose a security risk to the nation (policies that would appeal to defenders of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp).
And he was a longtime supporter of "colonization," an assisted migration scheme to encourage blacks to leave America for colonies in Africa, Central America, and elsewhere – a policy that would likely track well among supporters of "self-deportation" for illegal immigrants.
So could Abraham Lincoln win the 2012 GOP nomination? As commentators are fond of observing, in this dizzyingly mercurial primary race, anything is possible. Perhaps the more important question, however, is whether Mr. Lincoln would want the nomination.
Jackie Hogan is chair of Sociology at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. and author of “Lincoln, Inc.: Selling the Sixteenth President in Contemporary America.”
