Happy Presidents’ Day!  Americans used to celebrate the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as holidays, but they were lumped into this three-day weekend holiday, ostensibly to celebrate all US Presidents and give a little honor to some of the lesser lights. Ironically, we’ve recently seen the woke left attacking George Washington and Abraham Lincoln (Washington owned slaves and must be canceled, while Disney is filling your kids’ heads with the idea that Lincoln didn’t really free the slaves, so expect his robot at Disneyland to be scrapped next.) Let’s hope the ghost of Grover Cleveland doesn’t come back and demand not to be lumped in with those two un-PC Presidents.  

Still, while this holiday is now for celebrating all Presidents (and getting lots of things on sale), in a larger sense, it’s to celebrate the system by which we pick our national leader. A lot of Americans have lost trust in the system these days because so many people have worked so hard to undermine election integrity and attack the Electoral College.

But in the beginning, the Founders devised a brilliant system that gave a say to all the individual states, with their vastly different cultures and interests. We also celebrate our history of respecting the vote of the people and the peaceful transfer of power. Maybe for one day, we can at least pretend to respect those traditions again, then go back to observing “NOT My President Day” the other 364 days of the year.
 
I wrote an essay about Presidents’ Day in 2018, and I think it bears repeating, since not much has changed since it first appeared…



Monday was Presidents Day, and this year brought sobering new evidence that not only are Americans sadly ignorant of US history, but our historians aren’t exactly setting the woods on fire in that department, either.

A number of polls were released, asking the public to rank the greatest Presidents of all time.  Overall, the highest vote-getters were John Kennedy, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan. JFK had some major accomplishments, like the space program, but his term was tragically cut short after less than three years.  Obama’s #1 ranking is similar to those Internet lists of the “all-time greatest movies” that include nothing made before 1995 (“Wow, ‘The Last Jedi’ is #1!”)  They’re more a testament to the youthful ignorance of the rankers than the quality of the films.  And while I take a back seat to nobody in my admiration for Reagan’s accomplishments, even he would likely protest that Washington and Lincoln should have been on top.

I don’t think most people these days appreciate the unprecedented service Washington performed by refusing to rule as a king and voluntarily stepping down from power to rejoin the people. Without his example, the presidency might not even be recognizable today.  Well, at least George and Abe made the top 10 in most polls, but I suspect it’s less because of their historical significance than the fact that young people know them from the money.  We’re lucky they didn’t name Alexander Hamilton as the best President, because he’s on the $10 bill and he starred in that rap musical. 

But it’s easy to pick on the choices of the general public, who will naturally name things that are most recent and fresh in their minds.  But what excuses do alleged experts have for their biased and uninformed choices?  For instance, the 2018 Presidents & Executive Politics Presidential Greatness Survey is based on responses from current and recent members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.  They ranked Lincoln #1 and Washington #2.  Their top 10 also includes Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR.  But LBJ at #10? (I get it: they love big government).  Reagan only made it to #9, and at #8: Barack Obama (it goes without saying that they ranked Trump dead last, despite him presiding over the destruction of ISIS, a tax cut that fired up the economy and the rollback of executive overreach, all in his first year -- yet he was ranked lower than William Henry Harrison, who died of pneumonia 31 days after being sworn in.  He must’ve had one heck of a month.)

I think all you need to know about the “expertise” (or the bias) of these particular Presidential experts is that their top 10 includes Obama but not, say, James K. Polk. Polk oversaw the winning of the Mexican-American War; the reestablishing of the independent Treasury system; the annexation of Texas; the Oregon Treaty that set the border with Canada and won more of Oregon from the British than anyone expected; and the Mexican Cession, which added territory that included the current states of California, Nevada and Utah, most of Arizona, half of New Mexico, and some pretty sizable chunks of Colorado and Wyoming.  He even tried to buy Cuba, which would have prevented a lot of grief down the road, but Spain wouldn’t sell.  And Polk did all that and more in just four years because he kept his promise to serve only one term.  For that alone, he deserves to be in the top 10 (They rank Polk at #20, seven places below Bill Clinton).  

In comparison, Obama’s eight years gave us…Obamacare?  A record stretch of low GDP growth?  The spread of ISIS?  Michelle’s school lunch program?

I can’t help wondering how many of these alleged “presidential history experts” who lionize Obama live in states that wouldn’t even be part of America if it weren’t for James K. Polk.