Every election triggers distress for some people. Here are some ways to possibly cope.
This combination of Sept. 29, 2020, file photos show President Donald Trump, left, and former Vice President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio.
(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The U.S. presidential election is again serving as a symptom and a symbol of a troubled society. Whatever the outcome, history suggests anything but a quick resolution to deeply rooted problems.
President Nixon at a White House news conference in March 1973.
AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, File
Some presidents have lied for honorable reasons, while for others the lies have been simply self-serving.
Soldiers and African American workers standing near caskets and dead bodies covered with cloths during Grant’s Overland Campaign.
Matthew Brady/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Lincoln’s chances of reelection in 1864 were dim. He was presiding over a bloody civil war, and the public was losing confidence in him. But he steadfastly rejected pleas to postpone the election.
Delegates after Donald Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday, July 21, 2016.
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/via Getty
Political conventions used to pick presidential nominees in private. Now the public picks the nominee and then the party has a big party at the convention, writes a scholar of US elections.
A Czech-born goaltender for a Canadian hockey team wears a jersey recalling the 1864 burning of Atlanta, Georgia.
AP Photo/Mark Zaleski
When fighting a lethal foe on home soil, Lincoln expertly managed leading politicians; related well with the people; and dealt clearly with the military.
Union dead at Gettysburg, July 1863.
National Archives, Timothy H. O'Sullivan photographer
A growing chorus of people say the US has never been so politically divided. A Civil War historian reminds readers that there was once a far more divided time.
President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and Vice President Joseph Biden in 2019.
Library of Congress, photo Alexander Gardner; AP/Nati Harnik
The news is filled with stories about inappropriate touching by politicians. But touch by politicians was long important in the US, and Abraham Lincoln’s handshake helped engage and guide the nation.
What virtues must a president have?
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Presidents Day celebrates the American president – not only as a political leader, but as a moral leader. But can a president be a person of strong moral character, as well as a strong leader?
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sept. 27, 2018.
AP/pool image, Michael Reynolds
Contentious or politically driven Supreme Court nominations are not new. But US history shows that many of those contested nominees who were confirmed would go on to author controversial opinions.
Supporters and opponents of marriage equality demonstrating in front of the Supreme Court.
Reuters/Joshua Roberts
Americans have rediscovered the Supreme Court, as they do periodically when it’s at the center of controversy. With a president who attacks the legitimacy of courts, will their attention be benign?
The nation was bitterly divided over slavery in 1860, when this political cartoon was published.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Lincoln’s description of the Union as a house divided is well-remembered today. But many Americans fail to heed its lessons about equality and the moral foundations of popular government.
Preparing to decorate graves, May 1899.
Library of Congress
Memorial Day was born out of generous gestures after the Civil War: Southerners decorated graves of Confederate soldiers as well as those of former Union enemies.
President Lincoln was represented by a lawyer who didn’t vote for him
The White House
President Trump is having trouble finding a lawyer. But other presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, have obtained outside legal counsel easily, even from attorneys who disagree with their politics.
US President Donald Trump after sacking Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
EPA-EFE/Shawn Thew
The Trump administration’s incompetence makes it difficult for African countries to engage Washington in seeking meaningful explanations, much less substantive negotiations.
Why Jerusalem matters to evangelicals.
jaime.silva
Many American evangelicals believe that the establishment and protection of Israel set up a chain of event for the return of Jesus. What were the origins of this narrative?
An illustrated depiction of a scene of Lincoln lying in state.
Internet Archive Book Images
Dying in America 200 years ago was a simply family affair, devoid of pomp. The US Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s embrace of embalming changed everything.
After his assassination, Abraham Lincoln became a beacon of the United States presidency.
Bethany Moslen/shutterstock.com
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State
Global Scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC and Hopkins P Breazeale Professor, Manship School of Mass Communications, Louisiana State University