Today, the third Monday in February, is Presidents Day, the holiday which honors all the wealthy white men (and Barack Obama) who have served, with varying degrees of honor and success, as the nation's chief executive.
The holiday was originally known as Washington's Birthday in honor of the first president, who was actually born on February 22nd. It was later combined with Abraham Lincoln's birthday (February 12th) to honor two of our greatest presidents.
Things grew more complicated with the arrival of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968, which permanently moved all Federal holidays other than Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year's to a Monday to create three-day holiday weekends. The act would also have officially renamed the Washington's Birthday holiday "Presidents' Day" to honor the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln, but that proposal failed in committee, and the final bill signed into law on June 28, 1968, kept the official name "Washington's Birthday."
Nevertheless, today we call it Presidents Day to honor of all 45 of our presidents (not 47, because Grover Cleveland and Der Furor each held office twice) and to provide a convenient handle for sales of automobiles, furniture, clothing, and other items. At one time, the White House website hosted a list of the presidents, but that page has been deleted, probably because it mentions presidents other than Der Furor; for a complete list of presidents, you'll need to go to Wikipedia, which now has a better track record of documenting US history than the White House.
Presidents Day also provides an opportunity for historical reflection on the evolution of Republican presidents ...
So, happy Presidents Day to those who celebrate. Perhaps in another few years we'll again have a president worth honoring.
Have a good day. More thoughts coming.
Bilbo
3 comments:
What a prophetic cartoon.
Washington was indeed a great president, but Lincoln may have been among the worst.
We were a nation of sovereign, independent states, joined together voluntarily for their common good. Mr. Lincoln changed that to a sovereign central government in which the states were no longer sovereign, but subservient.
Mike - it's a classic!
Old Guy - I have to disagree with you there. Under the original Articles of Confederation, we were, as you put it, "a nation of sovereign, independent states, joined together voluntarily for their common good." The Articles of Confederation were replaced by the Constitution because it became clear that "a nation of sovereign, independent states" wasn't working out. The Constitution was drafted to allow for a central government strong enough to hold a union of (semi-) sovereign states together, but with internal checks and balances to keep any one branch of that government from getting too strong. Lincoln didn't make the change ... the founders did. Lincoln just exercised his executive powers more aggressively in his attempt to hold the nation together during the Civil War.
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