Educating Conservatives: Today's Lesson: Why Donald Trump is NOT a 'Modern-Day Lincoln'

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Is Trump a "modern-day Lincoln"? Some of his fans think so. But trust me, he's not. Photo Credit: NBC
Nope. Not in the slightest.
The only things in common that Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln are:
  1. Party affiliation: Republicans
  2. Ethnicity: Caucasian of European origin
  3. Last Job Held: President of the United States
  4. Gender: Male
Other than that, besides the fact that neither Lincoln nor Trump were shoo-ins during their first run to the White House, they are dissimilar in most areas.

An 1863 portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States. Photo Credit: Moses Parker Rice. Mead Art Museum collection 
"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."  Abraham Lincoln

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay? It's, like, incredible."  Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa, as the audience laughed, January 23, 2016
Consider:
  1. Abraham Lincoln was from modest, rural origins, born in a humble house in Kentucky in 1809. Donald Trump was born into a wealthy New York City family in 1946 and has never been poor.
  2. Abraham Lincoln was married once, was a loyal husband,  and never divorced Mary Todd Lincoln (even after Mary's fall into a depressive state following their young son Willie's death in 1862 at the age of 11), with whom he had four sons, (Robert, Edward, Willie, and Tad, two of whom died during his lifetime; Tad, the youngest, died at the age of 18 from heart failure); Trump has been married thrice (to Ivana, Marla, and Melania), cheated on all three wives, and is the father of five (Donald Jr, Eric, Ivanka, Tiffany, and Barron (three with Ivana, one each with Marla and Melania).
  3. Abraham Lincoln was a combat veteran (having served in the Illinois militia, the precursor to today’s Army National Guard, during the Black Hawk War); Donald Trump famously did not serve during the Vietnam War. First he got four deferments from the draft while he was in college from 1964 to 1968; after that, he was classified as 1-Y (unfit for military duty unless in case of dire national emergency) due to “bone spurs” on both feet. Before the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam in 1973, Trump was reclassified as 4-F (unfit for military service in all circumstances.)
  4. Abraham Lincoln was a self-educated man who later studied law, passed the Illinois bar exam, and had a successful career as a country lawyer and, later, a politician. Donald Trump worked in the Trump Organization at his father’s side and eventually earned a somewhat murky reputation as a real estate mogul and businessman.
  5. Abraham Lincoln was a voracious reader, a gifted writer, and a fine public speaker with great wit and a sense of comic timing. Donald Trump is an indifferent reader, an average-level writer, and - at least in his present capacity as President, an often inarticulate public speaker.
So, no. Donald Trump isn’t a 21st Century Abraham Lincoln.
He’s not even a 21st Century Richard Milhous Nixon.

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