By Edwin Cooney
I promise, I don’t like this any better than you, but it must be said: Donald John Trump, more than any president in American history, is one of us! That’s you and me, “us!” Here’s the root of my contention.
Back in 1965, I was sitting in a Binghamton, New York bar which was run by a gentleman named Dominic. Dominic was a reasonably friendly fellow, but he was increasingly disturbed about the path on which President Lyndon Johnson was taking us in both domestic and foreign affairs. America was still recovering from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The war in Vietnam was broadening and Americans had recently re-elected LBJ in large part because he’d promised not to expand the war. Most Americans hoped he could win the war before it became a real live war. After all, wars were declared by Congress and no such war had been declared. The civil rights struggle on behalf of black Americans was also broadening and for many it was becoming increasingly threatening to our homes, neighborhoods and schools.
At one point during the conversation Dominic asserted, “It’s a good thing I’m not running this country!” He didn’t offer anything in the way of details, but somehow Dominic’s observation stuck and remains stuck with me. It has become increasingly apparent to me since last November 8th that Dominic is indeed finally running this country.
The problem is twofold. First, in order to go beyond today’s painful dilemma, we’ve got to be willing to face its origin and to grasp its nature.
The origin of the problem, as I see it, lies in the fact that in order to be successful, all, not just some, people deserve to prosper. We are far more interdependent than we were during the first 150 years of our republic (roughly between the years 1776 to 1926). During this period of time, America’s primary task was to grow and flourish. Plentiful land and resources hand-in-hand with laissez faire was enough to both enrich most of America. What was missing was the free market’s unwillingness to invest in the workers as they invested in materials to keep their factories and businesses flourishing. Suddenly when the Great Depression choked all or most of the profit out of free enterprise, business needed a new stimulus to reenergize the country. That stimulus came in the form of FDR’s New Deal which meant, of course, more government. In addition to what government meant there came the personality of a strong executive. That executive, in the person of the President of the United States, became a being on whom Americans began to personally depend on to solve their problems. Not until the New Deal had government begun to tackle the woes of the people.
This new personage took on a status, for good or bad, that our presidential giants —Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, and even Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson — didn’t match. Thus, the person of the modern presidency has reached a gravity that the Founding Fathers, understandably never anticipated.
The modern presidency, for both better and worse, is here to stay. FDR was right when in a 1938 Fireside Chat he asserted: “The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government.”
What has been occurring since then is a struggle between the forces, political and socio/economic, for control of the government. These forces include business (big and small), banking, merchandising, labor (big and small), civil rights groups, chambers of commerce, other service organizations, consumer groups, churches, and what President Trump labels “the dishonest media.” All of these entities or, if you prefer, special interest groups, strive to manipulate presidents, congresses, and public service organizations for social and political power. The result is confusion and chaos.
To make matters worse, the political and moral conduct of recent presidents have lowered the prestige of the office. The office to which Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy were elected began losing its majesty in the wake of Friday, November 22nd, 1963. By the time Richard Nixon was elected, the White House had merely become the home for the most successful politician rather than for a potential statesman. Since Nixon, presidents have become “Liberals” and “Conservatives” just as much as they are Americans.
Thus, last fall, for the first time in American history, Americans elected a president almost entirely independent of ideological principles. As a “businessman,” he would outflank and outdo politicians of all ideological stripes, foreign and domestic. He alone would reshape the world regardless of what anyone else felt or thought and America would be “great” again. Many of us, myself included, underestimated him and it may well be (although it’s far from certain) that he’s bitten off far more than he can chew. After all, he now finds himself surrounded by politicians both at home and abroad. None of these politicians have to dance to his tune. Unlike corporate bosses, no individual leader, be he or she a party leader here in America, a prime minister, a president or even a king or queen is capable of ruling by mandate. What is happening under President Trump as I asserted above is chaos and confusion.
President Trump finds himself, whether he realizes it or not, in the same position as millions of his fellow citizens when they first enter parenthood. Parents possess, at least originally, all of the tools to “control” their children to the extent that they believe they’re obligated to do so. Eventually, however, they discover that with all their legal, financial, and moral power, they lack the authority to shape their children as they originally intended. Power without authority is only effective in the short run. Power promises the leverage to master the immediate. Authority is the reward for wise and reliable guidance once the severest test has been passed.
Like you and me at our worst, President Trump has convinced himself that, by his will alone, he can “master” America. After all, he is richer and supposedly better connected to the world’s most powerful resources than ordinary people and, like many of his corporate contemporaries, he believes that it is his responsibility to exercise his newly found power to reshape America, “…the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Unfortunately, like you and me at the dawn of every new experience in life, Donald Trump is just a baby. As such, in order to succeed, he must grasp the magnitude of his new responsibility by understanding as never before what it will cost him to succeed. After all, that’s what you and I have to do everyday.
Yes, indeed, President Trump, probably more than any 20th or 21st Century president since Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter, is a total mystery to most Americans. The difference between Truman, Carter and Trump appears to be that the former were humble enough to realize how much they had to learn. Unfortunately, like too many of us, President Trump believes himself above the need to learn. If he’s lucky, if we’re lucky, we’ll all muddle through. If not, at least we’ll have the satisfaction of fully realizing from whence he came.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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