If Mr. Lincoln were really an Abolition President, which he is not; if he were a friend to the Abolition movement, instead of being, as he is, its most powerful enemy...
— Frederick Douglass, December, 1860

I was listening to "The Road to Civil War," Part I of Backstory's three-part series commemorating the sesquicentenary of the American Civil War, when I was kinda taken aback by the quote above from Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln's election as President. This is America's most famous abolitionist describing as his movement's "most powerful enemy" the future author of the Emancipation Proclamation. It is rather startling.

But also, startlingly familiar, for Douglass's exasperation with the timidity and appeasement he saw displayed by Lincoln and the newly ascendant Republican Party is not unlike the exasperation expressed by many modern-day progressives toward President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats. Nearly everywhere you look on the left there is frustration and disappointment. Obama was touted as a friend of the LGBT community, yet he was slow to act on DADT, and has been less than forceful on DOMA. Obama enjoyed extraordinary support from organized labor, yet failed to move on some if its biggest issues. He campaigned on health care reform, yet couldn't even put his weight behind a compromise like the public option. He championed working people, yet bailed out Wall Street. He promised to close the prison at Guantanamo, but didn't.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard my fellow progressives say they couldn't possibly work to reelect a president who has been such a disappointment on so many issues. But on the Backstory podcast, Yale historian David Blight says that this is not unusual, explaining Douglass's harsh words toward Lincoln as part of "the same dilemma others have faced throughout our history..."

You advocate for something for perhaps all of your lifetime, along comes a political persuasion or a movement or a party that kinda goes partway there, and sometimes you are most disgusted with those who seem to be on your side, and yet won't act on it, versus those you know are not on your side and will never act on it.

Obama has often been described as "Lincolnesque," a comparison that apparently holds true in more ways than one.

[Oh... and if you've never listened to Backstory, I highly recommend it, even if you're not a history buff like me. Absolutely one of my favorite podcasts.]