Lost causers prefer a simple(minded) binary right/wrong, good/bad, black/white world to the more complex real world that we inhabit. In this case they can’t see that Lincoln was merely the guy who was at the helm when their ancestors played at insurrection - and got their butts kicked for their trouble. He earns their wrath because he opposed their treason. In truth no self-respecting conservative would accept any less if they were thrust into a similar situation.
Lincoln held our nation together. For that I regard him as one of the best.
Think of the only Republican president liberals not only like, but revere. There aren’t too many limbs who dislike Lincoln.
That says it all.
It is inevitable that whenever the topic of worst presidents comes up, Lincoln’s name will be invoked.
I am not so certain that holding the Union together was a good outcome. Not an apologia for slavery, slavery is heinous, indefensible and barbarous. It is, of course, rank sophistry to maintain that the Civil War was not about slavery, but you have little chance with someone who takes that position, so why bother?
Without a Union victory there would have been no Spanish-American War, no American imperial designs, no Teddy Roosevelt, probably no President Wilson. Without Wilson, would Hitler have seized power in Germany? How would Europe have been worse if Wilhelmien Germany had prevailed over Edwardian England?
Lincoln was what he was, he played a role in the worst catastrophe ever to visit this country, but he was not the cause, and it is hard to imagine another leader who would have been better in that time and place. The Union would almost certainly prevailed with resolute leadership, and as far as resolute leaders go, few were better than Lincoln. I believe that America would have been a better place if he had finished his second term. America, today, might have become a better place if the states were allowed to abolish slavery on their own terms, but for the decades of waiting it would have been vastly worse for the slaves.