Is it Right Makes Might, or Might Makes Right?

The Republican Party has moved towards hard power and military might as a way of exerting U.S. influence. That never ends well.

Abraham Lincoln, before delivering the Cooper Union Address, 1860, Library of Congress

On a brisk winter evening in February 1860, a young Abraham Lincoln took the stage at the Cooper Institute in Manhattan. The young aspiring lawyer-turned-politician was running for President, and this night would either make or break both his dreams and the nascent Republican Party, which was struggling to find a leader and a message to drive the resistance to slavery.

The speech, a lengthy one, is widely regarded as a masterpiece. Were it not for Lincoln’s other landmark addresses - most notably The Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural speech – it might be more prominently remembered as one of the greatest in American history. Known today as the “Right Makes Might” speech, he delivered a powerful moral and constitutional argument that resonated deeply with the moment. Lincoln’s thunderous closing words would carry the Republican Party through more than a century and a half of conflict. His message was built on one simple timeless idea: doing what is morally right is what gives a movement true, lasting strength.

Lincoln closed to thunderous applause with the following lines:

“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.”

If ever there were a message fitting for our current moment, this is it.

For years, that final line held the most significance for me. But given our country’s current state, rife with misinformation campaigns, wonton personal and professional destruction of those who challenge government actions, and the looming threat of political revenge, I have come to see Lincoln’s words through a new lens. They remind me of what our nation faced on the eve of the great war among the states - our Civil War.

Those words, Right Makes Might, carried us through the horrific atrocities of that war. They guided us through the dark era of segregation and Jim Crow. They gave us strength in the early 20^th-century world war and steeled our resolve as we fought fascism in the second. They were the true north for Freedom Riders in the South and compelled us to press on toward a more perfect union. Those words inspired our nation’s stand against communism, leading another Republican President to declare that it was this very principle - American values - that made us a shining city on the hill.

But today, the shining city on the hill has been replaced by a game of thrones.

Hard power, pure military strength, is now seen as the primary means of protecting and preserving American interests. Soft power, diplomacy, and international aid have been abandoned, no longer viewed as a tool for influencing allies or lifting emerging nations out of hunger, poverty, and oppression.

This is no minor shift. It reflects a fundamental change in belief, that the export of American values is no longer what makes us powerful. Instead, we are witnessing an administration that would rather appease authoritarian regimes that wield raw power (Russia) than strengthen ties with our allies in Canada, Mexico, and Europe, nations that may not have ‘paid their fair share’ in dollars but have carried a far greater burden, the values of democracy, constitutional rights, and human dignity.

What we are witnessing is not Realpolitik, No, at best, it is reckless, shortsighted deal-making; at worst, it is a deliberate effort to undermine the very framework of American exceptionalism. At least that is, the American exceptionalism of our mythology - that we are the leaders of the free world.

Perhaps Trump believes that America is not all that exceptional, except insofar as it provides him with a winning hand - military dominance, resource abundance, and geographic positioning that, so far, has shielded us from our enemies.

Fair enough, but even if you agree with that premise, any reasonably educated person would recognize that this administration’s foreign policy lacks coherence. It offers no grand strategy only the demand that we should trust Trump to “win” every time he plays his hand. Yet, no one wins at poker every single time. A skilled player knows how to navigate a losing hand, especially when holding the most chips at the table.

The United States of America has never been perfect. American exceptionalism is fraught with a checkered past, marred by some of the most egregious sins humanity can commit against itself. However, what has always set us apart is our recognition that we can, and must, do better. That pursuit of better is what Right Makes Might thinking is all about.

A nation of slaveholders fought its bloodiest war to set men free. The struggle for suffrage eventually prevailed because we recognized that more voices at the table of democracy would strengthen, not weaken, the republic. We are far from perfect, but what makes us virtuous is that we continuously fight for an ideal that can never be fully attained…a fight for more. A fight to bend the arc of progress toward justice.

Today, our political leaders have lost sight of that. Perhaps they never believed in it, to begin with. But if that’s the case, we must also recognize another truth: American democracy is unique in that its power is derived from the consent of the governed.

Our values matter. What we believe to be right makes all the difference. And that is precisely where today’s battlefield lies, not in the fields of Gettysburg, but in our commitment to the ideals that have always defined us.

If history is any guide, the righteous will prevail. The arc of progress will continue to bend toward justice… but only if we remain steadfast in the face of misinformation, intimidation, and the forces that seek to reverse it.

Because in the end, Right makes Might - not the other way around.