Presidents’ Day: it’s about the sales, man

Alas, “Presidents’ Day” has become just another jingoistic way to induce Americans to shop for cars and mattresses. And this is one distortion or, in this case, commercialization of history that has nothing to do with race matters.

Instead, this one stems from TV commercials now heralding and defining this holiday. Particularly dystopian are commercials with schoolchildren singing the names of dead presidents as a nursery rhyme – all to hawk cars

History of Presidents’ Day

The government inaugurated this holiday in 1799. It was meant to be a day of remembrance to honor the nation’s first president and Revolutionary War hero, George Washington.

Abraham Lincoln is the only other president accorded this honor. The government inaugurated his Day of Remembrance in 1866. No doubt sympathy and regret over Lincoln’s assassination – at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865 – inspired it. Indeed, Americans duly hailed him as the man who “preserved the union through its darkest hour,” the Civil War.

Since then, however, Americans have considered no other president sufficiently worthy. Never mind that they saw fit to sculpt the faces of Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt into Mount Rushmore alongside those of Washington and Lincoln.

In any event, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1971. It called for Presidents’ Day on the third Monday in February. And it’s intended to celebrate the birthdate and lives of all US presidents, irrespective of their actual birthdates.

However, the congressional record reveals this was more about granting federal workers another three-day weekend. That explains why Presidents’ Day is a misnomer.

That it never falls on the actual birthday of any president is a dead giveaway. But customary practice has morphed this holiday into one that is more about going shopping than honoring presidents.

The MLK presidential exception

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the only other American to have a federal holiday declared in his name. This falls on the third Monday of January.

Surely, that’s a testament to his extraordinary character and accomplishments. However, with due respect to all dead presidents and MLK, I feel obliged to note that I think Frederick Douglas is the greatest American ever.

Trump, the presidential shyster

In fairness to sleazy used car salesmen, nobody in the history of the United States has done more to defile the honor of being president than Donald J. Trump. Of course, his record of pathological lies, two impeachments, and attempted coup speak volumes. But one need only mention how this congenital shyster left the campaign trail on Saturday for this:

Former President Donald J. Trump, reeling from a ruling in a New York civil fraud case on Friday that ordered him to pay about $450 million, appeared at a footwear convention in Philadelphia the next day to promote Trump-branded sneakers, retailing for just under $400.

The former president took to the stage at Sneaker Con — facing a less friendly audience than is typical for his political rallies — brandishing golden shoes called the “Never Surrender High-Top,” which follow in the footsteps of Trump-branded products like Trump Water, Trump Vodka and Trump Steaks.

(The New York Times, February 18, 2024)

Well, it was a “Sneaker con,” and Don took it literally. But, when it comes to grifting, the contempt this con artist has for MAGA suckers knows no bounds.

Yet there’s the $1000 replica of Mount Rushmore, with his face added, which he has prominently displayed in his Mar-a-Lago estate. Nothing betrays the confluence of his megalomania and willingness to dishonor the presidency quite like that.

Writing more, I fear, would only amount to letting Trump desecrate the memory of the American presidents we ought to be honoring today.

Therefore, I shall end this tribute by nominating Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Ronald W. Reagan to grace a real Mount Rushmore 2.0. Who gets your nominations?