11//45
History repeated itself through the election of Donald Trump. His presidency is not following the script
Following a succession of missteps and mishaps the Candidate learned that he had, via cataclysmic surprise, become the president-elect of the united states. The only persons certain of his pending victory were a few most ardent supporters and the Candidate himself. His campaign came from somewhere on the frontiers of public awareness, barely hinted at and scarcely taken seriously. Chances only improved as his party cannibalized itself. One would be tempted to compare the candidate to a phoenix rising from the ashes. A phoenix would thus be tempted to roll its mythical eyes.
The Candidate’s triumph only began to make sense (or at least lend itself to explanation) with the hermeneutic aid of time. His opponent became an avatar for corruption and detachment. The Opponent was deftly depicted as an elite member of the political machine. Could the Opponent understand the needs and fears of the American people? Ivory towers are in their very nature elevated above the fray. The public conveniently neglected to recall that the Candidate himself had enjoyed privilege and the benefit of certain relationships himself.
The Candidate was dismissed by the opponent’s party and prominent media outlets. Finally, there would be vindication for the opponent’s long career of public service. A career that alienated some and infuriated others would culminate with accession to power long sought. The election results were complicated. The Opponent carried a large portion of the popular vote but it wasn’t enough. A third party candidate swallowed votes in states like Michigan. However a third option didn’t spoil the Opponent’s chances. The Candidate felt the pulse of the populace to such an intense degree it seemed he had tapped a vein. He spoke of security and supremacy. The faded greatness of America was lamented. Protection was promised. Threats of nefarious neighbors were met head on by the promise of military action. Old generals, war horses to their marrow, were marched out to assure both party and public that the Candidate was more than they imagined him to be. Apple pie and insecurities. American rights at birth. The Candidate knew it. His platform and platitudes rode the waves of fear that the nation was becoming too brown and too careful.
The media outlets which had dismissed his candidacy with mirth now choked down their humble pie. One such old-guard media member said that “the blow came upon us with staggering force”.
In 1845 James K. Polk was elected president.
Too cute? Of course it is. The idea that history repeats itself is referenced with such frequency because it is frequently true. Polk learned at the knee of Andrew Jackson — who Donald Trump believes would have ended the Civil War before it began. Of course he would have done by murdering and enslaving non-whites. Polk walked into a power vacuum in the Democratic party and walked out with the presidency by smelling of Jackson’s hickory cologne.
He defeated Henry Clay, a lifelong politician (and Jackson’s longtime nemesis) who figured to finally seize the power he coveted. Clay opposed the annexation of Texas, sought to improve the lives of middle and lower class Americans through government projects and massive infrastructure programs. Clay thought America’s most significant struggle was destined to be with America.
Polk knew Americans believed their enemies lay across borders and oceans.
Clay envisioned a country bursting with collective opportunity.
Polk imagined an uncontainable greatness.
Polk, and Trump, knew there was more political capital in a message of national greatness rather than neighborhood success.
Similarities are obviously the benefits afforded to revisionist history. Yet one could go further and deeper comparing the two unlikely candidates’ ascendancies. However the narrative arcs adopt divergent topographies once they became president. Polk navigated the country toward the goals of bi-coastal hegemony, forcing England to abandon their claim on Oregon. Of course the crowning achievement of Polk’s presidency was the acquisition of not only Texas but most of the current U.S. southwest. At one point previous to Polk’s election it seemed as though the British would control the Pacific Northwest and the Gulf of Mexico through a treaty with the nation of Texas. Polk rode the Jacksonian wave of rough-hewn expansionism to an incredibly successful presidency (as always there should be an asterisk inserted reminding us that he continued the troublesome habit of letting humans own other humans — and tightened the noose of slavery around the nation).
Trump would do well to learn from Polk. Recently the collective consciousness of the country has been overwhelmed with middle-school vintage threats with potentially apocalyptic consequences batted back and forth between the Trump administration and Kim Jong Un. Trump believes this is tough talk in the model of Jackson or his protege, Polk. It is more akin to the threats you make in your car after you’ve been cut off in traffic. It feels wonderful to declare the physical vengeance you’d exact on your newfound enemy, but what would you do if they invited you into the next parking lot? Trump, like Polk, wants to flex military muscle and continue to activate his base. Both men won elections and initiated presidencies along ideological lines abhorrent to some but intensely apt to an unfortunate plurality of the American public. James K. Polk promised to serve only one term; he made good on that promise and refused to campaign for re-election. Donald Trump will be fortunate to spend just over three more years in the same seat.
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