Lincoln the Primitive Communicator? What He Can Teach Modern Politicians
Honest Abe
The bearded one is known as The Great Communicator, but his methods might seem primitive compared to a 21st-century president: few speeches, avoiding the public rostrum, only speaking with a prepared text, even answering a critic in a newspaper. But in an essay collected in Lincoln: A President for the Ages, Lincoln scholar Douglas L. Wilson says the 16th president wrote speeches himself, took public opinion seriously, and had an unwillingness to demonize his adversaries—all admiring ways that can actually teach modern politicians a lot.
