Irony and the Presidency

                                 

     History has a sense of humor, and often uses irony to show it.  There is probably an endless amount of examples to be fished out of the ocean of human existence, so it would seem odd that we would be surprised when irony occurs in our lives, but some examples stick out more than others, and since the presidency of the United States has been such an important part of American and global history, this is as good a place to start as any.  A failed redcoat who defeats the British and becomes an American demigod, a man of immense reason and rationality leading us through a schizophrenic war, a weak asthmatic who becomes a force of nature, and a man handicapped in his prime leading us through two of the most intense periods of American history. 

     George Washington was not destined for greatness, but he was determined to make his mark in the British army in the early parts of the French and Indian War.  Being all of twenty-two years old and named a lieutenant colonel of a Virginia regiment, the combination of youthful ambition and naivety may have caused him to foolishly attack a French encampment in the disputed Ohio Valley territory.  He won the round, killing the French commander. But the French claimed their victims were diplomats, and so sought revenge (according to Dartmouth College history professor Colin Gordeon Calloway).  When the French counterattacked at Fort Necessity (near present-day Pittsburgh), Washington got his ass handed to him, and was from that point on overlooked by the British military brass. This took the young Washington down a path that led him away from British greatness, and towards winning a revolution that no one thought possible.  His legend grew (including that divine protection kept bullets from killing him), leading him to the only unanimous presidential win in our history.  Alexander Hamilton wanted him to be an American king.  Artists painted him in togas, dancing with angels.  He is the one dollar bill, drop the mike.

       Most people know Abraham Lincoln’s early bio.  Log cabin, cold relationship with dad, craved learning from his step mom.  He grew through many failures (personal, professional, political).  He lost to Stephen Douglas for the Illinois senate seat in 1858, but then won the presidency two years later!  He was, by many accounts, a warm, caring, thoughtful, forgiving person who used reason and humor to disarm his enemies.  Most of the Democrats he defeated in the 1860 primaries became members of his Cabinet.  Yet, the election of this model human being (and his anti-slavery stance) was the spark that blew up into the Civil War, as southern states started seceding in groups. As more than 700,000 American soldiers killed each other to prove that each of their moral compasses were pointed in the right direction, Lincoln remained calm but resolute.  While suffering through the deaths of two children (one while in the White House) and the emotional explosions of his wife, he glued the North and South back together into a non-slavery country.  We all know what he got for his efforts.  He was not rags to riches, but he was log cabin to Mount Rushmore. 

     You can’t feel bad for Theodore Roosevelt.  He was born to an upper class family in New York City, and wanted for little.  But he was small, weak, and suffered from asthma.  His father, whom he revered, warned him of the choice he would need to make.  Accept your weaknesses, or fight through them.  Teddy decided the latter, and lived his life as if attached to a Starbucks IV.  He did suffer the loss of his mother and young wife within hours of each other, but his list of accomplishments is near the top of any ambitious list.  New York State Assembly at age 23, cattle ranch owner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (which he quit to form the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War), Governor of New York, Vice-President to William McKinley, youngest president in history when McKinley was assassinated, finishing the Panama Canal, leader of the Progressive Era and creator of the Square Deal, unstoppable trust-buster, and stage-setter for four progressive amendments.  He himself was nearly assassinated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but the long speech he kept in his breast pocket probably saved his life.  In true TR fashion, he gave the speech to great dramatic effect before going to the hospital. After leaving office, and going on a mega-safari, he came back and formed the Bull Moose Party when he felt his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, had dropped the progressive ball.  Both lost badly to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.  Just for fun, he joined an expedition to map out two tributaries of the Amazon River.  The trip nearly killed him, and when he returned to New York, he wasn’t the same.  He died at age 60, having done more living than most people could in two lifetimes.

      TR’s fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, probably knew his path would be political early on, coming from the family he did, but he encountered a major obstacle when he contracted polio in 1921 at the age of 39.  He almost immediately lost the use of his legs.  Despite that, he was elected Governor of New York in 1928, and then won the presidency in 1932 (many thanks to Herbert Hoover’s handling of the Great Depression).  FDR brought an immediate reaction to the many needs of America, clearly emulated by Joe Biden in 2021.  The radio “fireside chats” that FDR made a staple of his administration brought a calm to many.  He would attempt to avoid US involvement in WWII, while keeping in constant communication with the likes of Churchill and Stalin (two people who could not have been less alike).  His handlings of American and world economic, political, and military situations were far from flawless, but they did cause him to be the only president in history to be elected more than twice (four total).  All of this done from the wheelchair he worked so hard to conceal, including the statue at his memorial in Washington, D.C.  A case could be made that he stood taller than any other world leader during this time.  

     With life, the race you start is usually not the race you finish, but the uncontrollable and controllable events and choices made during that race dictate the route.  These four men could not have known what awaited them in their young, imperfect beginnings, but, thankfully and ironically, their routes brought them to be great in many aspects of our history.