The Best President at Handling a Crisis Is?…

Last week, C-SPAN released the results of a survey which polled American historians on the question: “Who was the best president at crisis management?”

The results should not surprise you.

#1 was good ol’ Honest Abe.

American historians are a pitiful bunch. They are worse than sheep. Follow the leader would be their favorite game, and unless their “cutting edge” conclusions are focused on race/class/gender, they really don’t know much.

Sure, someone who writes a book on black homosexuals in the British Navy might be able to tell you a lot (or very little) about that topic, but get them outside of their “expertise” and it’s a crap shoot.

But these people teach survey courses, and because they teach survey courses they simply regurgitate the mainstream trends.

That includes what Lincoln worshipers have said about St. Abraham the Wise.

Abraham Lincoln did not manage a crisis very well. He moved the United States into the bloodiest war in American history.

That ain’t crisis management.

He could have avoided the entire thing if he just let Congress do its job in 1860 and 1861, but Lincoln was insisting that congressional Republicans should not compromise with the South.

He could have listened to his Cabinet and not provisioned Ft. Sumter and Pickens.

He could have allowed the South to peacefully secede. The United States would not have been “destroyed”, and who knows, the South might have returned to the Union at some point.

Unlikely, but still possible.

Yet, by placing Lincoln at the top of this list, American historians show why no one should trust them. Most just worship power while shilling for the “common man.”

As usual, this made for great Podcast fodder. I take down this idiotic poll on Episode 781 of The Brion McClanahan Show.