Within my lifetime, and before, the American people turned to their Presidents to calm the nation and inspire confidence in the face of national disasters and crisis. We learned about these great men and the confidence they instilled to the nation either in our history books, or if we were lucky enough in real time as they sought to calm the fears of a people looking for leadership.
Theodore Roosevelt, our 28th President, is perhaps best known for thinking big as he guided the Nation. With the passage of the Antiquities Act he began designating areas of national importance and in the course of this is credited for creation of the National Park system. His speech on the role of a Citizen in a Republic[1] remains today a testament to the value of the individual. He was also the President who began our entrance onto the global stage with the creation of the Panama Canal, and the sailing of the “Great White Fleet.”
When the Spanish Flu of 1918 hit the world, President Wilson and the government actively down played its dangers to avoid panic. Of course, they were supported in this effort by the “Committee of Information” he had formed when the U.S. had entered the War to End All Wars. As the committee noted “Truth and falsehood are arbitrary terms. The force of an idea lies in its inspirational value. It matters very little if it is true or false.” His government continued this charade even when 195,000 Americans died in October 1918. The Philadelphia Inquirer noted “Worry is useless. Talk of cheerful things instead of disease.”[2]
When the Stock Market saw its historic collapse in 1929 and the nation turned to Franklin Delano Roosevelt to save us from the economic disaster before us, we listened to his inaugural address where he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He then began a rather expansive socialization of our nation where the government, rather than industry, stepped in to put people to work, we created a plan to supplement the income for our elders, and created a way to bring electricity to those who were still living by candlelight.
He again came before the American people when our Pacific Fleet, and most of our holdings in the Pacific were attacked by the Japanese. Did he suggest we panic in the light of such overwhelming losses or did he seek to calm and assure the nation that in the end we would persevere? Did the media of the day question his leadership for not anticipating the attack and making sure the Pacific Fleet was ready for an enemy we knew was increasing its naval force far beyond the limits of the “Five Powers Treaty of 1922.”[3]
Then in 1960 we elected the first of the leaders coming from what Tom Brokaw would later refer to as “The Greatest Generation.” John F. Kennedy inspired us from his inauguration with “Ask not what America can do for you, rather ask what you can do for America.” Did we question his leadership when he cancelled support for the Cuban Invasion (AKA Bay of Pigs), or when we went to the brink of nuclear war with the USSR over Intermediate Range Missiles in Cuba? In each case he went on television to assure the nation everything would be okay, and the press adored him for it.
The 1980’s brought us Ronald Reagan, a career actor, who knew the power of the media and used it effectively to persuade the nation we could recover from the financial problems brought on by escalating debts from the Vietnam war. The deficit spending, he put into military arms took the nation deeper into debt, but Americans went back to work, oil shortages ended, the middle class expanded, and in the end he accomplished what no President since Harry Truman was able to. He destroyed the USSR.
The ‘90s gave us George H. Bush who led the nation through an incredibly short and successful, although some believed incomplete, war and into a financial crisis. He was succeeded by William J. Clinton who taught us that truth depends on the meaning of the word “is.”
So far this century we’ve had George W. Bush, Barrack H. Obama and Donald J. Trump. The first the media (both News and Hollywood) enjoyed mocking, but supported when he took us to war, first with Afghanistan and then Iraq. He rallied a country shocked by the terror of September 11, 2001 and guided the nation for eight years. Barrack Obama came into office on the tails of an economic crisis (perhaps something that links both Bush’s), and promised to unite the nation as no other President ever had the opportunity to, but after his 8-years the nation was just recovering from the economic failures he inherited but he left a legacy of dividing the nation into white and black unlike any of his predecessors. Yet, the press and Hollywood adored him at the same level they worshiped JFK.
Now we have Donald J. Trump, who came into office despite the best efforts of the DNC and media to vilify him and his supporters. With his election began the rebellion of the political, media, and social elite who’ve chosen every opportunity to vilify or mock him for his approach to dealing with them. Rather than accept their mocking, as did the Bush’s, he chose to directly counter-attack their pundits and analysis as “fake news.” From the first instant when it was clear he had won the election we’ve seen hysterical predictions of doom for the nation. We can start with Paul Krugman’s prediction the stock market would never recover, and move on to the “not my President” campaign, and the HRC's claims she won the popular vote, as if that was relevant. In fact, each of the claims by those who supported HRC were only intended to undermine the legitimacy of his win.
With his inauguration we began the Congressional investigations into his alleged ties with Russia, which we now know were started by the Clinton campaign, and perhaps Hillary herself. Each week seemed to bring a new promise from Representative Adam Schiff about some new criminal activity only he had knowledge of, but was just about to be revealed. Again, rather than concede defeat the DNC and its media outlets sought at each stage to show Trump as an incompetent boob, often at the cost of displaying their own incompetence. Of course, this approach has only served to further divide the nation as we seem to tumble willy-nilly into the future.
We have before us two critical issues: the physical health of the nation from the COVID-19 virus and our economic well-being. The question for the average American is who do we believe has the best answer to those challenges?
On the one side we have those who’ve said the President is incompetent and has done a poor job leading the nation these past almost four-years. On the others who believe the President is the duly elected President, who despite his numerous flaws, is responsible for guiding the nation and should be supported. I think the question is really more basic. In the middle we have the preponderance of media who have a clear agenda against the President and who cherry pick the information they will provide based on that agenda.
Who seems to have the best interests of the nation as a global power at heart? Is it the media who thrives on controversy, or the social elites who’ve made their fortunes in a system they now disdain? How about those in Congress who fail each year to perform even their most basic function of passing a budget on time? How about the unnamed bureaucrats who actually run the nation with little or no accountability, are they the ones? The Governors of the 50-states? Should we collectively look to them? How about the spokespeople of the various political entities struggling to gain the wealth of the nation, do they have our best interests as their core belief?
In this polarized world we see the average citizen has one of three paths to choose. On the one hand they accept completely the fear the media describes about the dangers of the virus and seek to remain in isolation and would leave the economy in shambles in the hopes the virus will get bored and move on, or we will find some miracle vaccine that will be 100% effective. The opposing side says “screw the virus” let’s go back to life as it was last year and if you get sick you will probably be okay, but if a few people need to die so be it. Personally, I suspect those two extremes are really very small fractions of our total population, at least that is my hope. That leaves a sizeable middle ground who is looking for the best risk analysis on how to reopen the economy while maintaining a reasonable level of personal safety.
The unfortunate fact of today’s
world is we really don’t have a unified choice on who we turn to for
answers, as we at least thought we did with previous Presidents in earlier generations? So, good luck with whichever path you choose.
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