Remembering Character This Presidents' Day
We need to remember that character is the single most important quality in a president.
Presidents’ Day in the year of America’s 250th birthday should be a time for great celebration. But there is a heaviness in the heart among those of us who view patriotism as the opposite of nationalism.
Presidential history is often the gateway drug for a love of American politics and civics. And while we have survived presidents of bad character and bad judgement before (with those Lincoln bookends, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan, always rattling around the basement), there has always been the redeeming sense that character is ultimately destiny. That virtue matters. But that belief is being tested. Because while no past president was perfect, none of them actively tried to divide the United States. The deeper tremor is the fear that We the People will ultimately pay the price for Trump’s endless failures of character.
When you look back at history, it’s clear that character matters more than any other quality in a president. All the other distinctions and differences fade away with time – perhaps especially which political party they belonged to. The question of character is pre-eminent because it determines whether they can be trusted to lead the American experiment with courage and compassion; if they can be trusted to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies – foreign and domestic.
Our country has been through difficult times before but never have the wounds we suffered felt more self-inflicted. The rabid hyper-partisan polarization which enabled the rise of Trump – even after he tried to overturn an election on the back of a lie that led to an attack on our capitol – is a self-inflicted civic sin that we will have to learn from. So is the greed-is-good impulse that he gleefully embodies. We will need to devote ourselves to strengthening American democracy going forward, rebuilding guardrails and restoring trust.
Faith in America has been broken. The hard fact is that we are not seen as the good guys on the world stage at the moment – and that is heartbreaking for any patriot. But that’s why we need to be resilient and determined – it’s why We the People cannot let patriotism be claimed by a cadre of kleptocrats, extremists and cowardly careerists who rationalize away every breach of American honor, excellence, and decency that used to define us at our best.
Keep the faith because our forefathers have been through worse: Revolution; Slavery; Civil War; World War and Depression (David Frum speaks eloquently to this on this week’s How to Fix It). Our is challenge now. Let’s meet it with grace and grit and determination – secure in the knowledge that this too shall pass.
Let us keep faith also in the wisdom expressed by past presidents, who understood that character is the essential factor for citizens and leaders and nations alike. And let us work to restore the expectation set by John Adams, carved into a mantlepiece in the White House: “may none but Honest and Wise men ever rule under this roof.” Honest and Wise – the capitalizations are his. It is not too much to ask. In fact, our democracy depends on it.