'two and two do NOT make four' - Abe Lincoln's warns about misrepresenting facts in political debates

 

Millions of viewers watched the 2024 Presidential Debate in June. It was a very poor showing by both people who are running for the Office of the President of the United States. The Republican candidate lied throughout the debate, and the Democratic debater spoke vaguely and appeared lost and confused.

A post about the "art" of debating in the words of one of the most famous Republicans in American history (and a debater himself), Abraham Lincoln, might provide an intriguing retrospective. Although the subject of Lincoln's speech was the expansion of slavery, tucked into the nooks and crannies of it were nuggets of strategy, style and warnings.

On Monday, October 16, 1854, then-U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas (D-IL) addressed a large audience at Peoria, Illinois. When he finished, he was cheered; and the band in attendance played a vigorous tune. The crowd then began to call for Abraham Lincoln, who - as Sen. Douglas announced - would answer him.

Lincoln - a practicing, successful attorney in Springfield, Illinois at the time - took the stand and opened with his customary wry humor. While poking fun of himself, Lincoln also revealed a crafty debate strategy - allowing his opponent [Douglas] to speak last:

The Judge has already informed you that he is to have an hour to reply to me. I [don't doubt] you have been a little surprised to learn that I have consented . . .if the Judge was entirely done, you democrats would leave, and not hear me; but by giving him the close, I felt confident you would stay for the fun of hearing him skin me.[1]

As a speaker's strategy, Lincoln regarded the use of disparaging remarks about his opponents as a distraction from the actual subject of the debate.

I wish further to say, that I do not propose to question the patriotism, or to assail the motives of any man, or class of men; but rather to strictly confine myself to the naked merits of the question.[1]

Lincoln also pointed out that when a debater is vague or unclear about any point or position in his argument, it works against him as a candidate:

I wish to MAKE and to KEEP the distinction . . . so clear, that no honest man can misunderstand me, and no dishonest one, successfully misrepresent me.

But when candidates lie about facts or history, it's a denial of reality:

. . . the Judge's desperate assumption that the Compromises of [1850] had no connection with one another; that Illinois came into the Union as a slave state, and some other similar ones. This is no other than a bold denial of the history of the country. 

In Abraham Lincoln's view, to deny, lie, or misrepresent the factual history of anything by one candidate was to undermine the purpose of a debate in the first place. It destroyed the premise or the assumption of truth that served as the starting point for further reasoning and arguments by the other candidate.

If we do not know that the Compromises of '50 were dependent on each other; if we do not know that Illinois came into the Union as a free state---we do not know any thing. If we do not know these things, we do not know that we ever had a revolutionary war, or such a chief as Washington. To deny these things is to deny our national axioms and it puts an end to all argument. 

Lincoln then gave an very brilliant and succinct example that really resonates today in 2024 (and perhaps explains some of President Joe Biden's confusion during the debate):

If a man will stand up and assert, and repeat, and re-assert, that two and two do NOT make four, I know nothing in the power of argument that can stop him.

Lincoln said that if such a candidate stood before him:

I can answer [him] so long as he sticks to the premises; but when he flies from them, I can not work an argument into the consistency of a . . . gag, and actually close his mouth with it. In such a case I can only [leave] him to the [voters].

To create a false picture - America's a failing third world country - based on lies, half-truths, and misrepresentation - rampant crime, failing economy, wind turbine cancer - leaves voters in ignorance of the truth with which to make a fair, rational decision at the ballot box. To Lincoln, political practices like these were a danger to the citizens themselves, to a representative democracy and to our country.

As it turns out, he was right.

Six years later, the South seceded, and the nation was plunged into a terrible civil war.

Will history repeat itself?

Food for thought.

Mac

Works Cited

1. Lincoln, Abraham. Speech at Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 2. pp. 248,283.

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