I have a column in USA Today today on why the Republican party needs to and how it can recapture the spirit of Lincoln:

It has no future unless it is a party of aspiration. It needs Lincoln’s emphasis on uplift, delivered in his populist voice. Otherwise, it will never beat its rap as the party of the rich – the knock on Lincoln’s Whig and Republicans, as well – or repair its disconnect from the country’s ongoing crisis of opportunity, which is expressed in joblessness, lagging wages, and social breakdown among the non-college educated.