As the season of presidential-politics 2012 unfolds, I’m struck by the similarities between today and the tumultuous period in our history that led up to the election of Abraham Lincoln and then on to the Civil War. So much so that I’m finding it a little eerie that this year we are observing the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War.

No, I am certainly not predicting, God forbid, that today’s divisions and tensions will lead to brother again taking up arms against brother. But profound differences divide us today, as was the case in the 1850s.