By Edwin Cooney
Not very often, but occasionally, I wish I were an intimate friend of President Donald Trump. If I could have that man's attention and trust for just an instant or two, I would, as an act of patriotism rather than partisanship, demonstrate to him his political achilles heel.
Since "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,” I'd offer the names of three Democratic presidents for his consideration who ultimately tasted the bitter cup of abiding political distrust in the wake of their arrogance toward others.
Although President Thomas Woodrow Wilson was barely re-elected over former Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes in November 1916, he was a very popular wartime president by late October of 1918. The economy was on a solid wartime footing and the news from Europe was that Germany was about to toss aside Kaiser Wilhelm the Third and surrender to The Allies. Nineteen eighteen was a congressional election year. Late in October, even as the news was getting better, President Wilson put out a plea for the election of Democrats as the only party which could help him win the war. The result was a disaster for President Wilson and his fellow Democrats. In the Senate, Democrats went from a 53 / 42 majority to a 48 / 47 minority. In the House, they slipped from a 216 / 210 minority to a 237 /191 minority. Within a year, Woodrow Wilson went from being a beloved world statesman to a defeated politician. His clearly arrogant moralizing and stubbornness cost him his League of Nations and a huge slice of his reputation in history. Today, rather than being considered a "great president,” he is now merely a "near great president."
Although Franklin Delano Roosevelt's fall wasn't nearly as great as President Wilson's, his failure to consult with either his cabinet or congressional leaders before he announced his decision to "pack" the Supreme Court severely damaged his political prowess until the outbreak of World War II. FDR's November 3rd, 1936 victory over GOP candidate Governor Alfred M. Landon was a massive one, forty-six states to Landon's two (Maine and Vermont). Roosevelt received 27,747,636 popular votes to Landon's 16,679,543. FDR's electoral vote was 523 to 8. Roosevelt's move to pack the Supreme Court was, to an arguable degree, reasonable. Like Woodrow Wilson whom FDR served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, FDR's act was both high-handed and arrogant — even though it had some merit. Subsequently, Franklin Roosevelt, great as he was, could not get either the public in general or the Democratic Party in particular to trust him with the absoluteness he surely craved. The party would nominate and elect him twice more, but its love was marred by uncertainty as to his personal integrity.
A few days ago I began reading Tim Alberta's new book “American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump.” Within it, I found another president's arrogance. That president was a man named Barack Obama, a president I hold in very high regard. However, within three days of his inaugural, he made a blunder that cost him the ability to lead with a sufficiently high degree of effectiveness. According to Alberta's book, there were two crucial meetings between President Obama and the congressional leadership. The first occurred on Monday, January 5th, 2009 while Obama was President-Elect. When that meeting was over, GOP leaders were impressed with Obama's willingness to take into account GOP proposals on crucial issues. One GOP staffer observed, “if he governs like that,
we're f—ked." In order to get a grasp on events, they needed to go to war with Obama. On Friday, January 23rd, when GOP House leaders handed the newly minted president the list of their priorities he'd invited them to present, his reaction was originally receptive. However, in the inevitable discussion of those GOP priorities, the president asserted: "You know elections have consequences and I won." That was the gateway Republicans were looking for to get at Obama's appearance of high purpose. For the next year and a half, President Obama had sufficient majorities in Congress to pass measures without Republican help. However, Republicans had an agenda of their own, namely that of purifying their party to appeal to American values over those of a left-wing president with African and perhaps even Islamic values. President Obama's blunder freed the GOP to define itself rather than follow a president it never intended to respect.
As I see it, President Trump's problem isn't conservatism. Conservatism appeals to people's intellectual, social and spiritual values. Most Americans are either drawn to or repelled by the policies and ultimately the person of the President of the United States. "I vote for the man" remains the individual personal proclamation down through the years.
Three years ago, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by defining her as “a crook” among other things. Mr. Trump's victory apparently was more personal than it was patriotic or political. All of this president's challenges are personal rather than matters of principle or patriotism. Thus, in 2020, if he's to be re-elected, President Trump is going to have to face a formidable opponent plus the democratic presidential nominee. Unlike four years ago, President Trump has a record and an image he’s going to have to overcome.
Donald Trump, meet your biggest opponent — Donald Trump!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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