By Mark Ramont

I have often wondered what motivates a David to take on a Goliath. In Norman Corwin’s The Rivalry, a 1958 play written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the most famous of all American political debates, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, a one-term former U.S. Representative with a lackluster political career takes on one of the true giants of the political landscape of his era, a two-term U.S. Senator at the height of his political power seeking reelection. In this case, David doesn’t win—but the two meet again two years later in a race for the U.S. Presidency, and this time, Goliath is brought down.

It’s an inspiring story, and Corwin pulls most of his dialogue from the actual transcripts of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, so it’s a very true story. It speaks to the power of an idea with a moral center and its ability to propel a man of humble origins to the highest office in the land. I’m not speaking of the abolition of slavery, although that was the battlefield on which the idea was tested, but in this nation’s profound foundational idea, liberty. Lincoln saw slavery as an evil, in large part because it diminished, tarnished and challenged the very idea upon which his beloved nation was founded: the idea that all men have that inalienable right to liberty. If you were willing to compromise that ideal of liberty, he argued, by denying rights to one group of people based on color, race, or any other demarcation, then you “have lost the genius of your own independence and become fit subjects to the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.”

There’s no question that slavery was an explosive issue when the debates took place in 1858. Stephen Douglas packed the explosives with his Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Supreme Court lit the fuse with their Dred Scott Decision. Out of the turmoil walked Abraham Lincoln, a man so aroused by these attacks on his cherished beliefs that he felt compelled to challenge these injustices, not through violent or subversive means, but by participating in the very system that he loved. He never faltered from his basic conviction that the foundation of the United States—its belief in the liberty and freedom of all men—was a solid one, and that it was the best foundation of any nation ever conceived. It’s a powerful motivation, and it inspired Lincoln to work tirelessly for the preservation of that nation—and that ideal. In this time when our country is faced with a plethora of overwhelming problems, I hope that we will look for—in our leaders and in ourselves—that same core, motivating moral idea that challenges us to seek the greater good—not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. And I hope that you will find The Rivalry to be as inspiring, motivating—and enjoyable—as I have.