OPINION: What Type of President Will Donald Trump Be - Lincoln or Buchanan?

The big question that remains is what type of president Donald Trump will be. The potential answers run the gamut, depending on his performance and leadership, between an abject failure and a transformative leader. We know the type of campaign he ran and the negative effect it had on our discourse, but the Oval Office has a tendency to reveal greatness in an individual if it is present. And we are in a key moment of our Democracy as we have been at times in the past.

I am a big believer in the cycles of history. Every 75-80 years, America goes through immense disruptive change at all levels: economic, political and cultural. We are in that moment today and it is hard to predict the outcome just as it was in the past. We are going through incredible cultural change, turmoil as our economy adjusts to technological advances and we have lost faith and trust in most political and government institutions. We are also wondering about America's place in the world.

Around 80 years ago, we were in the midst of the Great Depression, huge financial inequality, loss of trust in leaders, race difficulties and the advent of World War II. The leaders that emerged in that moment were Herbert Hoover, who was a failure in dealing with the economic crisis and is ranked by historians in the bottom of Presidents, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, ranked near the top, who innovated and was a transformational leader at nearly every level of our country.

Some 80 years before that, we were in the midst of great economic change, moving from an agrarian to an industrial economy. We were also struggling with cultural change, the rising issue of slavery and about to move into the tragic and terrible Civil War. The two Presidents who emerged at the time also were a study in contrasts.

There was James Buchanan, who failed to deal with the growing divides, had an Administration filled with scandal and is considered one of the worst presidents in our history. And there also was the election of the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, who is ranked at or near the top, bringing our union together, healing divides, and like FDR, bringing transformational change.

So the question is: will Trump be a Buchanan or a Hoover, failing to solve the fundamental problems our society faces or heal the divides, or will he be a transformational leader in the mold of FDR and Lincoln.

I know partisans quickly answer that question depending on their political jersey. Democrats will quickly say he will be a failure and serve one term. Trump supporters believe he will succeed "big league" and be a great president. I think it is still an open question, and we won't know the answer for at least a year. The good news is that even if Trump turns out to be in the line of Buchanan and Hoover, that means our 21st century version of Lincoln or FDR is likely soon to follow. America has always been strong enough to overcome bad leadership, and give birth to the leaders we hunger for.

The choice is ours, and time will tell about our president-elect.

Matthew Dowd is an ABC News analyst and special correspondent. Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of ABC News.

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