tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10585025.post4068753143717890099..comments2023-10-21T03:28:00.596-04:00Comments on Mad Minerva 2.0: History Nerd Fun: If You Could Mess With History ...Mad Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01649780647476573087noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10585025.post-61806770394530308782013-09-23T12:18:11.383-04:002013-09-23T12:18:11.383-04:00Jesus.Jesus.Steve Dnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10585025.post-79717829962832315632013-09-21T19:37:48.810-04:002013-09-21T19:37:48.810-04:00As an American, I would save Lincoln to find out h...As an American, I would save Lincoln to find out how he would have managed the post-war of the Civil War.<br /><br />The post-war is often an after-thought, but while winning a war is the necessary origin point, the historical relevance of a war is mostly determined by the construction of the peace after the war.<br /><br />We screwed up the post-war of the Civil War. I believe the failure of Reconstruction (ie, the nation-building project to simultaneously integrate the freed slaves and the radically altered post-war South) has had a far greater long-term - and mostly negative effect - on the course of our nation than the Civil War itself.<br /><br />Andrew Johnson eventually decided to wash his hands of the difficult long-term project by cutting expedient political deals, reminiscent of Obama short-sightedly truncating the long-term project to liberalize the Middle East that Bush started in response to 9/11.<br /><br />Maybe Lincoln would have been boxed in by the same post-war political pressures and eventually reacted the same way towards post-war Reconstruction as his Vice-President. Or maybe Lincoln, like Bush, would have understood that some Presidential decisions have permanent downstream consequences and are worth sacrificing present-day political cache. Or like Bush, Lincoln would have governed by his long-term vision only to have the project unraveled by a short-sighted, demagogic successor.<br /><br />Anyway, we know Johnson screwed up *the* pivotal project of America 2.0 and thereby set us on a misdirected course that America has not recovered from. I like to think Lincoln would have done it better. Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04353598011965570312noreply@blogger.com