Mark Bauerlein on the Legacy of Lincoln—The Editor’s Desk

First Things Podcast

First Things

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark Bauerlein joins editor R. R. Reno to discuss his article “A Less Perfect Union,” from the January print edition. They discuss the mixed legacy of Lincoln’s actions and rhetoric, the heroism of the Southern military, and the necessity for more realistic embodiments of America, like Davy Crockett and Jack Kerouac.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Editor's Desk Podcast.
0:16.6	This is Rusty Reno, editor of First Things.
0:19.5	And I have with me Mark Fauerline to talk about his recent piece in the January issue of First Things, a less perfect union. Welcome, Mark.
0:32.1	Glad to join you, sir. Before we get going, of course, I have to make a plug.
0:43.2	In this case, it's a plug for our sponsor, First Things Magazine.
0:52.9	We're at the waning days of the month of December, and we're engaged in our year-end fundraising campaign.
0:59.4	And so I really hope that those who enjoy this podcast, as well as Mark's conversations with Mark Bowerland podcast, can see their way to logging on and making a donation to
1:05.6	support our mission here at first things.
1:09.3	Plug done.
1:10.3	Okay, Mark. a less perfect union.
1:13.6	It's really a piece about Abraham Lincoln,
1:17.4	and I got done reading the piece,
1:19.3	and I thought, oh, we should have given the title,
1:23.0	The Curse of Lincoln.
1:27.6	It is sort of part of your thesis.
1:31.3	It is. And what really brings me back to it is some current events.
1:38.9	And when we look at on the left, the woke movement, it really does bring a utopian conception of social affairs
1:49.4	to critique the obviously messy lives of society that we have to lead. And that the woke outlook just wonders, why do we have any discrimination?
2:04.0	Why can't everyone just be happy?
2:06.2	Why can't we really have heaven on earth?
2:09.5	Where, you know, love is love, and everyone can pursue his and her and she and G's desires, and we can all just live and let live and be happy.
2:24.0	And this seems to me to be just a progressivist version of the old utopian dream.
	...

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