Moral legislative victories require pragmatic means including bribery and arm-twisting

Evidence

His own party was deeply divided on the issue, which threatened to prolong the horrendous Civil War. Lincoln was a resolute moralist on the core principle of racial equality but a pragma-tist on the means to achieve it. He used his considerable influence, along with the forceful political maneuvering of Thaddeus Stevens, a powerful House member, to sway reluctant congressmen. The maneuvering included arm-twisting, promises of patronage jobs, and even political bribery. … In his review of the movie Lincoln commenting on these coercive tactics, A. O. Scott (2012) noted, “The better angels of our nature sometimes need earthly inducements to emerge.” — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 122

Categorization

• CANDY: The A.O. Scott line ‘the better angels of our nature sometimes need earthly inducements to emerge’ is a tweetable quip.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 122
• XREF: connects to: Bribery rather than repression was the chief tool for controlling media and legislators — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 63