Nothing to Celebrate
Let's turn the page on Presidents' Day
While the rest of us mourn, the White House celebrated Presidents’ Day, another useless national holiday second only to Columbus Day, by posting a picture of Donald trying to look tough (he ended up looking like my grandmother, though she never wore quite as much makeup), with the caption:
I was the hunted. Now I’m the hunter.
Let’s leave aside the fact that by being “the hunted,” Donald is referring to his having been legitimately investigated, indicted, and convicted for crimes he actually committed; and by referring to himself as “the hunter” he is acknowledging that, because he is an aggrieved child not satisfied with having gotten away with all of those crimes, he is currently misusing the power of the presidency and the agencies he controls to go after those who investigated and prosecuted his crimes. This is the message of a thug, a wannabe mafia boss. That is what it now sounds like to be “presidential.” And it’s another reason to consider what it is we’re supposed to be celebrating today. I’ve often wondered why we have President’s Day at all because we’ve had more terrible presidents than good ones, and we’ve had more mediocre ones than either of those.
The holiday was originally in honor of George Washington and fell on his birthday until it became a Monday holiday. Eventually, the holiday expanded to include Abraham Lincoln and other presidents in general. Washington’s actions as a general during the Revolution, his presidency, and his decision not to seek a third term to avoid the appearance that the presidency was a lifetime appointment were worth celebrating. The man himself, however, was an enslaver.
By the same token, it would be fitting to celebrate the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, his stewardship during the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and his laying the groundwork for the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Lincoln’s views of Black people were in some cases abhorrent, but if he had survived, his work would have completely changed the course of this nation’s history. His successor, Andrew Johnson, however, actively sought to restore the South at the expense of newly freed Black Americans, including the devastating dismantling of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
Should we celebrate him—or Andrew Jackson or James Buchanan or the worst presidents in modern history like Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush or Donald? We should be more circumspect about the kind of national holidays we celebrate and the kinds of presidents we choose to honor. Celebrating all presidents, even implicitly, is just another way to normalize the worst of them including the one person who has done more damage to the office of the presidency than any other.
We’re often told that even if we don’t respect the person of the president, we must respect the office of the presidency. I don’t think that applies anymore because the person currently inhabiting that office has spent over five years defiling it. What, anymore, is there to respect? If the people in this country want to set aside a day to celebrate presidents, we should be more careful about choosing those who are worth it. And if we came up with a list, it’s not that Donald would be the last name on it—he wouldn’t be on it at all.
If T's presidency has taught us anything, it's that too much power is now in the hands of the chief executive. Once this one is over, assuming elections are free and fair (and held), much work will need to be done to restore balance to our government--and to ensure at least minimal competence is required of our leaders.
A symbolic gesture to that effect would be to ditch President's Day, as the office and whoever holds it already gets too much deference.
We can just call it Another Monday Off to Go Shopping Because It's Winter and We're Bored.
President’s Day is cancelled until we get one