ABSTRACT
Abraham Lincoln did not live in the era of strategic political communication. That is not to say that Lincoln was wrong when he observed that one cannot fool all of the people all the time, but it does suggest that he may have misread the implications of his assertion. Two of the central themes in democratic thinking are leadership and responsiveness. To Lincoln, leadership was a form of responsiveness. The interests of the political system are served when democracy is viewed as an ideal, and when the myth of the free press and the free people is more or less an accurate representation of the way things really work. There is no likelihood whatsoever that all of the citizens of the United States will ever become fully involved in the political process as thinking, reasoning citizens. But there is a distinct possibility that many will enter the political arena to make their will felt.
