|
History has a way of remembering the good things.
How many people do you know, yourself included, that look back on past relationships and remember mostly the good stuff about it. You don't remember all the times that other person drove you crazy or pissed you off or hurt you, but you do remember the great vacation you took with them or the great sex you had with them.
History is the same way. Lincoln was a man with faults, like anyone else and he did what he did for many different reasons. Many of them were probably not what we believe them to be today. But in the end the he did what he did and it worked so we remember him as the guy who was able to (forcibly and through war) hold the union together. There is no telling what this country would have looked like if he hadn't done this or if the North had failed. Might be good, might be bad, but it would be different for sure.
Regan is another he raised taxes and nearly bankrupted Social Security. He did a ton of terrible things as president. But we remember him as the guy who brought down the Berlin wall and crumbled Communism in Russia. And guess what. If 50 years from the now the middle east is a place of peace and democracy we will look back on Bush as the guy who got the ball rolling. We won't remember how he bankrupted the country or how he trampled on the rights of the citizens.
It's just human nature. It is why we tend to not learn from the past and continue to relive it.
|