[On July 31, 1875, Andrew Johnson died. Johnson is one of our worst presidents, which means he also reminds me a lot of our current and very worst one. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy echoes of some of our worst presidents in Trump 2.0!]
On how our
worst prior president both does and doesn’t echo our very worst one.
In this August
2018 Saturday Evening Post Considering History column I made the
case for some of the many reasons to define Andrew Johnson as the worst president
in American history. Once again I’d ask you to check out that prior piece and
then come on back for further thoughts.
Welcome
back! As I hope every detail of that column made very clear (even if I didn’t
say it overtly, which is my Post editor’s preference and one I respect),
impeachment proceedings are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the
links between Johnson’s historic awfulness and Trump’s strong competition with
him for the crown of worst president ever. Moreover, it’s my understanding that
Trump doesn’t drink, which makes his nonsensical rambling speeches even more
striking than those of the (apparently, at least occasionally) inebriated
Johnson. Also, Johnson’s final
public remarks (during his brief time as a Senator before his
death from a stroke 150 years ago today) were an extremist, white
supremacist attack on his successor, President Ulysses S. Grant, and who among
us can imagine Trump going out any other way?
As that
Senate service indicates, Johnson didn’t go quietly into that good night when
he lost his reelection bid to Grant in 1868. But he also didn’t run for president
again, limiting the catastrophic damage of his historically awful presidency to
one term (and an abbreviated one at that, since he took office in April 1865
when Lincoln was assassinated). I’ve written
elsewhere in this space about what we lost when we were denied a second
Lincoln term and got Andrew Johnson instead, so it’s only fair to note what we were
spared when Grant helped his departed friend Abe out and made sure we only got
one Johnson term. Unfortunately, neither Joe Biden nor anyone else were able to
do the same when it came to a second Trump term, and so here, 150 years after
the death of our other worst president, we fucking are.
Last
baddie tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
do you think?
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