Today is « Presidents Day » – as good an occasion as any perhaps to reflect upon our ongoing national nightmare. Way back when (in the mid-1970s) – during our last « long national nightmare » (i.e., Watergate) – one of my Princeton professors wrote, « How did we get from the Federalist Papers to the Edited Transcripts? » On this Presidents Day, we may likewise wonder: How did we get from Washington to Trump? How did we get from Adams vs. Jefferson to Biden vs. Trump? How did we get from Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists to Democrats vs. MAGA?
Despite its popular name, « Presidents Day » is not a celebration of the presidency. In fact, « Presidents Day » doesn’t really exist – except in the fevered swamp of American capitalism, where it is February’s analogue to November’s Black Friday. Legally, « Presidents Day » is really still Washington’s Birthday. Since February 22 (Washington’s actual birthday in the Gregorian calendar in 1732) became a federal holiday in 1879, George Washington has been the only president honored with such a holiday. However, in one more obvious sign of the misplaced priorities which characterize our contemporary our society, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 considered the creation three-day weekends more important that the historical and cultural meaning of holidays like Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, and Columbus Day.
Meanwhile, as if pretending it were still a serious organization, the Senate, every year since 1896, has deputed one of its members to read out loud Washington’s 7,640-word farewell address. Last year, Senator James Lankford, an arch-conservative Republican Senator from Oklahoma, since then now apparently a persona non grata in MAGA circles for actually being willing to try to govern, read the address. Of course, Congress, as if it were oblivious to the multiple crises confronting our country and our world, any number of which are being exacerbated by congressional malfeasance, has gone on vacation. So the ritual reading of Washington’s Address will have to wait a while!
All of which, while obviously trivial in itself, seems somehow symbolic of the sad state of our politics and society. The relationship is reciprocal. Our deranged politics unhinges our society. And our increasingly unhinged society stimulates the derangement of our politics.
