Letter to the editor: Current Oval Office occupant could learn from predecessors

Due to overwhelming public pressure, the Walt Disney Company has cancelled its suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and returned the long-running television show to the airwaves.  This is a welcome setback to those who would stifle dissent in this nation, the world’s foremost democracy.

From the very beginning of our republic, presidents and politicians have faced strong public criticism. A Connecticut newspaper wrote in 1800 that if Thomas Jefferson were elected president, “murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced.”

Times and personalities changed, but disparagement remained sharp. 

Abraham Lincoln was described as an “idiot,” a “baboon,” and an “orangutan.”  Andrew Johnson was slammed as a “drunkard,” as was Ulysses S. Grant. Rutherford B. Hayes, the “winner” of the disputed election of 1876, was routinely referred to as “Rutherfraud.”

Even First Ladies have been denigrated. At a White House ceremony in 1886, Grover

Cleveland, age 49, married the beautiful Frances Folsom, who at 21 was less than half the president’s age. Frances was the Diana Spencer of her day, and press coverage of her every move was nonstop.

Infuriated by the treatment of his wife, Cleveland publicly rebuked the “professional gossips” who “make American journalism contemptible,” those who would “desecrate every sacred relation of private life.”

Probably the most famous journalist of the first half of the 20th century was Henry Louis “H.L.” Mencken, whose syndicated column in the Baltimore Sun was published nationwide.  Mencken’s ticket to fame and fortune was to savage the president regardless of party, and he was utterly unsparing.

Thus did Mencken castigate Theodore Roosevelt as “crude, devious and tyrannical.” Woodrow Wilson was a “cad,” and Warren Harding was a “stone head.” 

The journalist’s dislike of Franklin Roosevelt was especially intense. FDR, allegedly, was a “quack,” whose New Deal was run by “an astonishing rabble of impudent nobodies.” Mencken’s condemnation of “That Man” was shared by many wealthy and conservative Republicans.

But did FDR respond to this flak by threatening to jail his opponents or by deploying the National Guard to major cities? Not at all. Roosevelt elevated the presidency and the electorate by employing confidence, charm and humor.

A memorable example is the following excerpt from a Roosevelt campaign speech that was broadcast nationwide on radio in 1944. It brought down the house.

“These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala.

“Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family don’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. He hasn’t been the same dog since.”

Then there was John F. Kennedy, who responded to protestors outside the White House by sending them coffee. Said the novelist John Steinbeck of the Kennedy style: “What a joy that literacy is no longer prima-facie evidence of treason.”

Plainly, the current occupant of the Oval Office could learn much from his predecessors.  But how do you educate a man who thinks he’s God’s gift to the world?

Joseph Tipler

Centralia