Space for change

NYT oped writer Michele Goldberg writes that a Joe Biden’s presidency could well surprise many and I believe she is right. Progressives and people on the left should know by now that the trajectory of a presidency depends on much more than the past positions of a presidential hopeful. And yet it seems the lesson has to be learned again and again. Who would have guessed that Lincoln or Roosevelt or, in some ways, LBJ would usher in transformative changes? It’s never good to put people (and in this case, presidents) in tightly constructed categories that allow no space for them (or us) to change. More than a few abolitionists were disappointed when Lincoln won the Republican Party presidential nomination instead of their guy. And it took a while for them to change their attitude toward him, despite ample reason to do so, as Lincoln rose to the challenges of leading the country in a bloody and long civil war. Here’s another aspect of politics where MLK has much to teach us.