"He who promises more than he is able to perform, is false to himself; and he who does not perform what he has promised is a traitor to his friend."
George Shelley
Each day, a new revelation emerges from this wretched,
insufferable White House, a mélange of snake infested rooms, a weak Indiana
Jones vignette of frightful serpents emerging from every crevice. Reporters, staffers, secretaries,
aides, assistants, interns, junior and senior officials, all attempting to
navigate the labyrinthine halls of influence, deception and vainglorious
sycophancy.
Motivated by a wish not to be indicted, prosecuted, or
called as a witness, they muddle about, the specter of the Mueller
investigation hanging in the fetid air, wondering what the special counsel will
do next. Bobby three sticks, a
sphinx, keeps counsel only with the tight lipped, professional white collar
prosecutors, whom he has engaged to follow his lead and perhaps chase Caligula
from his cave. The man
who would be king writhes, stews, and fulminates in a hopeless situation of his
own creation, transfixed by large screen TVs. Never wanting really to be President, and ill
equipped for the purpose did not realize that his brand building expedition
would get him where he is: Under microscopic public scrutiny, a ravenous,
blood-thirsty retinue of reporters, each seeking to break the next story and
which, to now, have not had much travail in discerning.
The stories, falling into their laps like so much manna from
the feckless President, who says he is "really a genius, very smart, who
went to the best schools," helps them along their path to potential
Pulitzer prizes, much like a reincarnation of Richard Nixon, only with half the
brain of the latter. His Joseph
Goebbels, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, re-channels all the delusional tweets, into
semi-retractions. Her countenance
resonates with the evasive, half truth, and "I'll get back to you,"
(which she never does) when she does not have the answer to a question that
clearly does not fall into the easy spin category. After Trump leaves, I do not imagine she will be replacing
Lesley Stahl on 60 minutes.
This gruesome episode of an unfit President reminds us of
the unfit Andrew Johnson, who succeeded to the Presidency upon the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
In those days, Vice Presidents, not necessarily of the same party as the President,
allowed Johnson, a southern Democrat, the antithesis of Lincoln, to assume
office. Congressional Radical
Republicans wished to guarantee the rights of freed slaves and blacks by
passage of the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution to
guarantee black suffrage, and Johnson, although loyal to the Union, was an unabashed racist, sympathized with those who wished to keep blacks in
involuntary or indentured servitude. Post war, Federal military districts
created by Congress, deployed federal troops under the command of Phil Sheridan
to ensure that local white supremacists could not endanger the black vote. Congress passed a law called the Tenure
of Office act providing that the President could not fire cabinet members
without the consent of congress.
This law was intended partially to protect Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's
gruff, but highly capable Secretary of War, who was fervidly enforcing the
reconstruction acts passed by Congress.
The acts, lumped together, meant to bring order to a disjointed South,
still infested with violent racial hatred. A threat of a new rebellion loomed. Although loyal to the Union, Johnson
exemplified a callous indifference for blacks and for those who would protect
them. He supported the infamous
"Black Codes," enacted by southern states to deprive African-Americans
of their suffrage and wished prematurely to reinstate local state governments
antithetical to blacks. Johnson
lied and misstated his positions repeatedly to different audiences, including
on a country wide speaking tour.
At the time all this was happening Ulysses S. Grant, the
great hero of the Union, reacting to Johnson's vituperation and vitriol, stated,
"I would impeach Johnson because he is such an infernal liar." Johnson had had a falling out
with Grant, over reconstruction policies.
Grant, a fourteenth amendment advocate, wished that the former
Confederacy be under military supervision for some time to ensure that blacks
be protected from hateful former confederates, and that there be no renewal of
the insurrection. Johnson was his
own worst enemy, but at least had consistent beliefs on how to reconstruct the
South. Johnson attempted to
manipulate those around him, both in the cabinet and especially those who
disagreed with his ideas of returning the Southern states to the Union and
disagreed with the fourteenth amendment, guaranteeing black suffrage and full
citizenship. He employed deceit
and vitriol toward this end. He
created havoc in his cabinet and uncertainty in the nation over the result of a
horrifying war, which had cost 755,000 American dead and delayed reconciliation
between the South and the North. This, the radical Republicans in congress,
could not bear. (For those readers
not familiar with the Republican party of the time should understand that it
was the polar opposite of today's Republicans.)
With the benefit of 150 years of historical analysis, the
bet is that had Lincoln lived to promote "malice toward none and charity
for all,” civil rights may have been an easier battle and emerged into broad
sunlight sooner.
Congress impeached Johnson but he was not convicted in the
Senate, saved by one vote, after he had disingenuously promised to adhere to
the rules set down by the Senate that he would pursue with vigor the
reconstruction acts, and the military districts set up in the South. With only nine months left in his term,
and his torpidity toward equal rights, opposition to the 14th Amendment, was
not nominated by his own party, leaving office in 1869, and died in 1875. Johnson, regarded by historians
as one of the worst presidents in American History exhibited many of the
characteristics and temperament of Donald Trump, and although he was known to
have been perverse in his racism but, at least, had been literate.
Johnson was the first President to be impeached, and if
being an "infernal liar" is the criterion for impeachment, the
present occupant of Oval Office, certainly qualifies.
