2.18.2008

Merry President's Day

C: President's Day should not be about mattress sales or getting that screaming deal on a used pickup truck. It should be a moment ponder the Weirdness that is presidential history. Granted, somewhere some little kid is memorizing the elected order of the Presidents just to embarrass us all on late night TV. And you scream silently because you forgot Zach Taylor and Millard Fillmore. Nevertheless, the Big Cheese in Chief stories, our stories, are epic. And this American rollercoaster should be cherished for all its glory, wickedness, miscalculation and occasional glimpses of greatness. To our loyal readers, blow the dust off that Encyclopedia Brittanica growing mold in your grandmother's basement and look up any President. Then read some more from anywhere and everywhere. You think today's politics are a dirty, brutal muckfest? Enjoy.

Since this is Drunken Politics, Andrew Jackson springs to mind. What a story. And what an interesting SOB. Ask the Seminole or the Cherokee. Or the Masons. He also threw the greatest Inaugural Party of all time.

"President Jackson was known for opening up the White House to visitors of all classes. His inauguration party lasted for hours as throngs of people from packed streets pushed into the White House. This painting captures the rowdy scene with its broken furniture and stifling crowd. It took a whole week to scrub and clean the White House after the party."

-http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04/subs_pph/PresidentDetail.aspx?ID=7&imageID=1274

Politics and History are good, clean, ugly, disturbing, messy American fun. Merry President's Day.

And cheers for the King of SOB's, Teddy Roosevelt. There would be no National Parks or National Forests without him. Edward Abbey and I raise a glass to you.

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