By Edwin Cooney
On Friday, January 20th, 2017, Donald John Trump became the nation's 45th President and the thirteenth Chief Executive in my lifetime. From the time I was in my early teens, presidents' backgrounds, beliefs, promises, dislikes, and personalities have been of keen interest to me. The instrument they use to achieve the presidency is that of a political party and the method they have utilized to become president for the last century is their individual participation in a presidential campaign. Presidential campaigning goes as far back as 1840, but not until 1912, the year that William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson all ran, did presidential candidates themselves participate much in them.
Living in Upstate New York which was mostly Republican, I didn't hear much of anything good about Harry Truman until I was in college. He was "give 'em hell Harry,” of course, but he was also known as "Harry S stands for nothin' Truman.” (The Trumans couldn't decide whether Harry's middle initial “S” stood for grandaddy Anderson Shipp Truman or granddaddy Solomon Young. To confuse matters a little more, Harry was named after his maternal uncle, Harrison Young, although his name is Harry not Harrison. No stranger to criticism as a failed haberdasher and an undeservedly labeled gangster, Harry once put it this way: "I don't care! There's nothin' new they can say about me! It's all been said!”)
Ike, having been first a war hero and second a mere president, was harder to pick on. However, even with his engaging smile and noble heroism, political detractors found ways to ridicule him. Ike was old, bald, his speech syntax was a little off-kilter now and then. He was "grandfatherly," liked to read mostly westerns, and seemed to play golf more than he signed or vetoed legislation. Some considered him temperamentally cold and lacking in vision. However, despite themselves, most Americans, truly liked Ike. You had to — you couldn't help yourself!
Largely ignorant of young Jack Kennedy's extramarital peccadillos, Americans were literally wowed by his Harvard style, his good looks and his often self-deprecating sense of humor. (He once quipped that his rich father absolutely refused to pay for a "...political landslide!”) Ronald Reagan, twenty years later, used his handsome physiognomy and Hollywood style of entertainment and humor to wow much of America. Reagan's humor was politically sardonic and often misleading in order to make an ideological political point, but it was exceedingly infectious and persuasive.
As human as presidents ultimately are, their follies, foibles, affectations, and assets ultimately have an effect on the national mood — and the national mood has a tendency to eventually dictate national policy, sometimes for as long as a generation. What isn't clear is whether a successful presidential campaign reflects the true sentiment of a free people or how much it manipulates the reaction of the voting public.
What's most disturbing about President Trump's quarrel with Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib isn't his opposition to what they say or how they oppose his policies, it is his willingness to stir up their ethnically and racially biased opponents. President Trump invariably ridicules and dehumanizes his opposition. He seems totally tone deaf to the very existence of the essence of political liberty — the right and even the obligation to criticize any incumbent administration. Even worse, he has abandoned the role of recent presidents to act as a national arbiter of disputes, a presidential expectation since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Sadly, we've entered a new era in national presidential politics, the era of presidential smack talk. It is on the level of professional wrestling and the worst of sports smack talk. A few years ago, Torrold Deshaun Smart (known as Rod Smart) adopted the name (or handle) "He Hate Me." That is, all of his opponents oppose him because they hate him. Such a sentiment invariably appeals to the champions of any underdog. Mr. Trump is always an underdog. Apparently, he believes America is, too. That’s both sad and bad.
It’s an appeal to angry pride rather than to patriotism.
It can be argued of course that why we choose one presidential candidate over another is ultimately irrelevant so long as we make the best choice.
As tedious and even boring as an issue-laden campaign may be, our genuine hopes and fears really matter more than any president’s angry inclinations.
YACKITY YACK!! That’s presidential smack! Too dangerous to ignore, it’s fit only to deplore. It’s hardly patriotic, it’s mostly Trumpian exotic! Too deadly to swallow, so in it, sadly we’re left to wallow.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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