I must be missing the point of The New Yorker's cover, the one that shows former Presidents looking shocked and appalled at Donald Trump.
Shocked and appalled? Really? At what, exactly?
Teddy Roosevelt was no fan of immigrants, to put to very mildly. He insisted that immigrants be thoroughly Americanized as quickly as possible ("this is a nation — not a polyglot boarding house") and speak English ("let the immigrant who does not learn it go back"). He was also an avid eugenicist who believed our "society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind." Does The New Yorker think TR would be aghast at anything Trump has said?
Abraham Lincoln was no respecter of Constitutional limits when it came to national security. In 1861 he had the U.S. Army occupy Maryland and arrest the state's legislators to prevent them from voting on secession. Thousands of Maryland officials were held without trial or charges for the duration of the Civil War. And they weren't held in GITMO, either, but right here, since Lincoln had unilaterally suspended Habeas Corpus, the Bill of Rights be damned.
FDR was another President who had little regard for limits on his power. After the Supreme Court struck down key pieces of his New Deal program, he tried to expand the Court to 15 members so as to appoint his own new majority. And, there was his wartime Presidential Proclamation No. 2537 which permitted the arrest, detention, and internment of enemy aliens - Japanese, German, and Italian citizens residing in the United States - and his Executive Order 9066, which authorized the physical removal of all Japanese Americans into internment camps.
John Kennedy certainly would have traveled in Trump's social circles, and would probably have liked Trump's economic policies. Kennedy strongly advocated for reduced personal and corporate income taxes, and got that reform passed over bipartisan opposition in Congress. He was also a Life Member of the NRA.
George Washington was our greatest President, but, well ... slavery.
Hey, New Yorker, if you dislike Trump just say so. But, if you dislike him, then you really ought to dislike some of those ex-Presidents even more.
6 comments:
These interesting remarks should be addressed to The New Yorker, not The New Republic...
Steven - Much appreciated, thanks. Well, at least I had the "New" part right.
TSB: Yesterday Cnn's Barbara Starr reported the Pentagon has special forces in Libya and an attack may be imminent. I wonder if Trump ordered it because we need to stop this stock market slide by starting more wars in places with oil? Let's see if he claims credit tonite. gwb
TSB: Forget that sno-blower! For just $55 bucks you can clear your neighborhood streets with this little beauty next time it snows. gwb
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-28/250000-caterpillar-bulldozer-can-be-yours-low-low-price-5500
GWB: I've seen a lot of that CAT equipment on the streets recently. If I lived closer to the auction site, I'd be tempted to pick one up.
TSB: Now we know why ISIS claimed credit for the Sinai Metro-Jet bombing and later provided a picture of the bomb. They supplied that bomb to the brother of an Egypt Air airport worker who put it on the plane! gwb (so, you were right about Putin and 'carpet bombing' Syria might not be the answer.)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-crash-suspects-idUSKCN0V712V
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