On the night of December 7, 1941, up to sixty journalists and photographers gathered outside the White House. Pearl Harbor had been attacked and many ordinary citizens also came to the grounds of the President’s residence, hoping to get a glimpse of those who were to lead this nation in the time of peril. Standing three or four deep outside the back lawn of the White House, the many who had come began spontaneously singing — patriotic songs. were the Words of God Bless America and My Country, ‘Tis of Thee wafted on the night air.
One of the journalists, Merriman Smith, wondered whether President Roosevelt “could hear those unrehearsed songs coming spontaneously and from the hearts of the little people across the back lawn.”
“The little people” — this phrase, used almost 79 years ago, is still part of the collective feelings of both Democrats and Republicans about the ordinary citizens who make up most of the United States. Those who support politicians, those who vote by the millions, have been described by Barack Obama as those who ‘cling to their guns and Bibles’. Hillary Clinton called supporters of her opponent “deplorable” and “irredeemable”. And Joe Biden called those who supported the other candidate “the dregs of society.”
There is a large swath of America that is called by many ‘flyover country’, parts of the nation ignored by those in power because they don’t count in their estimation of the electorate. Often we have heard expressed the frustration of hard-working citizens that our leaders don’t understand those of us who work, are honest, pay our taxes and vote in each election that our voices don’t count.
It was not always so, and it was not the aim of the founders of our great Republic. Office holding was supposed to be a public service. If a citizen was called to serve, he would leave his home and occupation, travel to the capital city, and when the sessions were over, he would then return to his vocation. Offices were not to be held as a sinecure or a job for life.
George Washington became the perfect model for what the founders wanted. Instead of placing himself as dictator or king, which he might well have been able to do, Washington gave up power after his service in the American Revolution and returned to Mount Vernon. And, when called back to serve as the first President, he retired when he could have continued.
Quickly, though, partisan politics intervened and men have been consumed with the lure of power and fame. It has grown to the place that looking over the past hundred plus years, those who have run for and achieved the ultimate, the Presidency, did so after years at the public trough. For those of you who are not familiar with the litany of professional politicians who have made up the quest for that power and fame, here is the historical record.
Starting with 1901, we see Theodore Roosevelt serve for eight years. Before that, he was a politician in New York State, served as Undersecretary of the Navy and Vice-President. His successor, William Howard Taft, was a legislator from Ohio. Following him was Woodrow Wilson, who served as President of Princeton University and Governor of his state. William Harding was a long-time congressman from Ohio, and his successor, Calvin Coolidge had been Vice-President. Herbert Hoover held a number of offices before he was elected in 1928, and when he was waylaid by the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt became President after a career which included a stint as Undersecretary of the Navy, candidate for Vice-President and Governor of New York. When he died in 1945, Harry Truman, who failed at most everything except marriage and politics (Senator from Missouri), served as President for almost two terms.
Before being running for the Presidency, Dwight Eisenhower was not elected to office, but his biographers claimed he was a master politician who managed to direct a war effort by keeping disparate allies at peace with each other. John Kennedy served as congressman and senator until elected to the Oval Office. Lyndon Johnson spent most of his adult life in Washington as a Texas Senator and Senate Majority leader, and somehow became a millionaire along the way. Richard Nixon was congressman, senator and Vice-President, and the man appointed by him as Vice-President, Gerald Ford, had spent several terms as a congressman from Michigan. Jimmy Carter was Governor of Georgia before successfully winning the White House; Ronald Reagan spent two terms as Governor or California, and George H. W. Bush held many public offices, including Vice-President. Multiple terms as Arkansas governor preceded Bill Clinton’s ascending to the Presidency, and George W. Bush was Governor of Texas when he was elected in 2000. Barack Obama earned most of his salary as a public servant; he was a community organizer, Illinois legislator and U. S. Senator before running for the Presidency in 2008.
For the first time in over a century, a man was elevated to the highest office in the land without ever being elected to public office. Donald Trump was well known through his multi-headed business empire and his TV ventures, but not since the 1800s has a non-politician been elected to the Presidency.
Our founding fathers could not have imagined how the country has changed; technology, the growth of the nation from sea to sea have made the United States a place they would not recognize if they were able to visit here again. But their vision of public service being just that instead of a lifetime job would not have changed. Their example would be the Roman leader, who, reduced to farming when he was impoverished, was at ‘his plow’ when a crisis came. Cincinnatus left his plow, led the Romans to victory over invaders in the 5th century BC, and then went back to his plow.
But the lure of power and riches lead many to seek any and hold any office they can get. The present Democratic candidate for the Presidency, Joe Biden, has been in Washington for 47 years and seeks more time. What this does is to insulate the office-holders from the lives of those of us who are going to be served, or rather governed.
Professional politicians are the best argument for term limits, forcing those who want to be public servants to be just that — servants of the people, who go to the seats of government, do their term and return to the private sector. To do so would honor the memory of Cincinnatus, but more so honor the example of our first President, George Washington.
I, for one, am tired of those who want power so much they will spend their entire adult careers pursuing one office or another. Given the opportunity, some of these will morph into little tyrants who rule over the lesser, the ‘little people’ in Merriman’s words. We, the little people of 2020, need to demand those who feel they are elite, to return to the plows of their former lives, if they had one.