Letters to the Editor
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Lincoln as centrist
healthyskeptic,
After sleeping on my last response to you, I would have to say that what most bothers me is some hypocrisy in your point that the left needs to silence its "fringe". You bring up Lincoln as an example of a centrist, who steered his party's radicals away from ruining themselves out of his understanding of what the people wanted.
However, in matching Lincoln's words with what he did, it is plain to see that a bigger issue is that while he was very consistent in his statements, goals, and actions. Was this just political calculation or personal belief writ large? Does it matter? Despite his relative obscurity and less than impressive appearance, he lead this country through one of its most traumatic and difficult periods by doing what he said and saying what he was doing.
The flip you want to add to this is that members of the current left must hide their ideals and/or push their fringe elements to the side to claim the center. I have news for you. They are the center, and their (and our) best hope is for them to consistently state their goals and follow through. You say that the failure of the Radical Republicans in the 1860's was that they privately enriched themselves while talking about the public good (hmm, sounds familiar). I think the failure of the modern center would be if they fail to do as they say and say as they do, as clearly as possible.