OPINION
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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017
On Presidents Day, we celebrate the good ones
AP Photo/File
President George Washington delivers his inaugural address in the Senate Chamber of Old Federal Hall in New York on April 30, 1789.
P
residential biographers will tell
you there are flaws in all of their
subjects. But at certain moments,
when the chips were down — such as
the nation’s birth, the Civil War, World
War II — the right leader showed up to
meet an enormous challenge.
While the scourge of Islamic terror-
ism still threatens America, the abiding
enemy of a large share of Americans is
change — economic and cultural — that
threatens livelihoods and personal val-
ues. In the face of that, it’s not always
clear that current national leaders have a
program of substance. Instead, they win
by channeling the anger and fear of the
disaffected voters.
But that is not leadership. And that is
what makes this a dispiriting time.
Disappointment with current elected
leaders is disappointment with our times
as much as it is about the people in
question.
Many years ago, on George
Washington’s or Abraham Lincoln’s
birthday, it was traditional for elemen-
tary schools to hold programs honoring
those hallowed presidents. These days
we have Presidents Day.
In many ways, we are more in need
of some discussion of Washington and
Lincoln than we were in the 1950s. And
it’s not the children who need to hear
about the virtues of those great men. It’s
the adults. Especially the adults who
make and administer our laws.
We need to discuss Washington and
Lincoln not because they dwarf the
presidents we have known in our life-
times. We need to talk about them
because they rose to their tasks at two
of the most difficult moments the nation
Disappointment with current
elected leaders is disappointment
with our times as much as it is
about the people in question.
ever faced.
Looking backward, the rise of
Washington and Lincoln seems inev-
itable. The preeminent Washington
scholar, James Thomas Flexner, titled
his one-volume biography “The
Indispensable Man.”
Oregon U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield
made a similar point about Lincoln,
whose life the senator studied in some
depth. “Lincoln did not feel that he
chose his place in history, but rather that
history had chosen him,” Hatfield said.
“Clearly no other individual could have
brought so much good out of the seem-
ingly infinite seas of madness and blood
with which he was forced to deal.”
Compared to Lincoln, Washington is
an elusive figure. “No American is more
completely misunderstood than George
Washington,” wrote Flexner.
As Garry Wills notes, one cannot
understand George Washington with-
out grasping the Enlightenment, which
produced him. If that era was defined
by a set of shared values, our era is one
of dissonance. The reality of America’s
increasingly divergent values is a phe-
nomenon that is driving our politics in
2017. We have not had much luck find-
ing a president who epitomizes America
at this moment.
It is worth remembering that
Americans are nearly always dissat-
isfied with our presidents and that we
nevertheless prosper in ways far beyond
our founders’ wildest imaginings.
Washington, unique in American his-
tory for winning his two terms with
unanimous votes by the Electoral
College, was widely ridiculed and dis-
liked at the end of his presidency.
He faced an armed uprising in 1791.
Some blamed his policies for eco-
nomic disruptions in the nation’s early
years. Washington was a slave owner.
He sided with Alexander Hamilton vs.
Thomas Jefferson, a conflict that gave
rise to continuing ripples of political
partisanship that still trouble us today.
Despite his imperfections, with the
wisdom of time and a degree of look-
ing backward with rose-tinted glasses,
Washington is now justly celebrated for
having done most things right.
As the Miller Center at the
University of Virginia notes, “he toler-
ated dissent, vicious attacks on his repu-
tation and name, and a divisive press —
all in the interest of freedom. There is
little reason to suggest that Washington,
unlike so many of his successors, ever
sought to use his office for personal
empowerment or gain. Neither did he
shelter his friends for the sake of their
friendships when conflicts of interest
arose.
“Perhaps most importantly,
Washington’s presidential restraint,
solemnity, judiciousness, and nonparti-
san stance created an image of presiden-
tial greatness, or dignity, that dominates
the office even today. He was the man
who could have been a king but refused
a crown and saved a republic.”
The men including Washington
who crafted our system of government
understood and explicitly dealt with
concerns that presidents could become
too important. It is inevitable the top
elected job in a great nation becomes
the focus for blame and credit. But in
the U.S. system of government, the
president is a public employee, not the
personification of the nation, as was the
case in the European monarchy we left
behind. The presidency is important but
our nation is infinitely more so.
While intensely pragmatic, Lincoln
has been sainted for his humanity. As
Sen. Hatfield put it, “The true essence
of Abraham Lincoln was his ability to
lead without sacrificing compassion.”
Compassion is a trait we need to see
more of from the White House’s current
occupant.
Presidents Day is good time to cel-
ebrate the good ones, who manage to
govern in ways that promote peace and
prosperity. But it’s also an opportunity
to thank even the mediocre and lacklus-
ter ones, who often sacrifice health and
reputation in efforts to serve the country.
Finally, Presidents Day is a good
symbol for the fact that they are only
small parts of who we as a nation —
we give 1/365th of 2017 to honoring
them, and many of the remaining days
to thinking little of them. This is as it
should be.
What a failed Trump administration looks like
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
I
still have trouble
seeing how the
Trump admin-
istration survives a
full term. Judging
by his Thursday
press conference, President Donald
Trump’s mental state is like a train
that long ago left freewheeling and
iconoclastic, has raced through
indulgent, chaotic and unnerving,
and is now careening past unhinged,
unmoored and unglued.
Trump’s White House staff is at
war with itself. His poll ratings are
falling at unprecedented speed. His
policy agenda is stalled. FBI investi-
gations are just beginning. This does
not feel like a sustainable operation.
On the other hand, I have trouble
seeing exactly how this administra-
tion ends. Many of the institutions
that would normally ease out or
remove a failing president no longer
exist.
There are no longer moral arbiters
in Congress like Howard Baker and
Sam Ervin to lead a resignation or
impeachment process. There is no
longer a single media establishment
that shapes how the country sees the
president. This is no longer a country
in which everybody experiences the
same reality.
Everything about Trump that
appalls 65 percent of America
strengthens him with the other 35
percent, and he can ride that group
for a while. Even after these horrible
four weeks, Republicans on Capitol
Hill are not close to abandoning their
man.
The likelihood is this: We’re going
to have an administration that has
morally and politically collapsed,
without actually going away.
What does that look like?
First, it means an administration
that is passive, full of sound and
fury but signifying nothing. To get
anything done, a president depends
on the vast machinery of the U.S.
government. But Trump doesn’t
mesh with that machinery. He is per-
sonality-based while it is rule-based.
Furthermore, he’s declared war on
it. And when you declare war on the
establishment, it declares war on you.
The Civil Service has a thousand
ways to ignore or sit on any presiden-
tial order. The court system has given
itself carte blanche to overturn any
Trump initiative, even on the flim-
siest legal grounds. The intelligence
community has only just begun to
undermine this president.
Trump can push all the pretty
buttons on the command deck of the
Starship Enterprise, but don’t expect
anything to actually happen, because
they are not attached.
Second, this will probably
become a more insular administra-
tion. Usually when administrations
stumble, they fire a few people and
bring in the grown-ups — the James
Baker or the David Gergen types.
But Trump is anti-grown-up, so it’s
hard to imagine Chief of Staff Haley
Barbour. Instead, the circle of trust
seems to be shrinking to his daughter,
her husband and Stephen Bannon.
Bannon has a coherent worldview,
which is a huge advantage when all
is chaos. It’s interesting how many
of Bannon’s rivals have woken up
with knives in their backs. Michael
Flynn is gone. Reince Priebus has
been unmanned by a thousand White
House leaks. Rex Tillerson had the
potential to be an effective secretary
of state, but Bannon neutered him last
week by denying him the ability to
even select his own deputy.
In an administration in which
“promoted beyond his capacity”
takes on new meaning, Bannon
looms. With each passing day, Trump
talks more like Bannon without the
background reading.
Third, we are about to enter a
decentralized world. For the past 70
years most nations have instinctively
looked to the U.S. for leadership,
either to follow or oppose. But in
capitals around the world, intelli-
gence agencies are drafting memos
with advice on how to play Donald
Trump.
The first conclusion is obvious.
This administration is more like a
medieval monarchy than a modern
nation-state. It’s more “The Madness
of King George” than “The Missiles
of October.” The key currency is not
power, it’s flattery.
The corollary is that Trump is
ripe to be played. Give the boy a
lollipop and he won’t notice if you
steal his lunch. The Japanese gave
Trump a new jobs announcement he
DAVID F. PERO, Editor & Publisher
Founded in 1873
could take to the Midwest, and in
return they got presidential attention
and coddling that other governments
would have died for.
If you want to roll the Trump
administration, you’ve got to get
in line. The Israelis got a possible
one-state solution. The Chinese
got Trump to flip-flop on the “One
China” policy. The Europeans got
him to do a 180 on undoing the Iran
nuclear deal.
Vladimir Putin was born for a
moment such as this. He is always
pushing the envelope. After gifting
Team Trump with a little campaign
help, the Russian state media has sud-
denly turned on Trump and Russian
planes are buzzing U.S. ships. The
bear is going to grab what it can.
We’re about to enter a moment in
which U.S. economic and military
might is strong but U.S. political
might is weak. Imagine the Roman
Empire governed by Monaco.
That’s scary. The only saving
thought is this: The human imagina-
tion is vast, but it is not nearly vast
enough to encompass the infinitely
multitudinous ways Donald Trump
can find to get himself disgraced.
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