Discontent and the disconnect of Presidents' Day

There's a conflict between yesterday's presidential heroes and today's politicians.

Photo by David Everett Strickler on Unsplash

By April Ryan

This Presidents' Day, there is a tug-of-war of ideas over presidential politics, financial shifts, mass federal firings, and the open debate as to who is American and how they show up authentically in this country.

All of the above overshadow the intent of this day: to pay reverence to the nation's first president, George Washington, and those who followed.

George C. Edwards III, Distinguished Fellow at the University of Oxford and Jordan Chair Emeritus at Texas A&M University, says, “Presidents’ Day is officially Washington’s Birthday. This should be a day of celebration of consensual American values and outstanding personal character." With great deference to this moment in history, Edwards proclaims, "It no longer is." He goes on to say, "In a time of hyperpolarization of an incumbent whom most people view as not respecting the country’s democratic values and not acting ethically in office, the holiday is now relegated to cringing at the news and shopping [for] clothing sales.”

For the past 28 years, I have marveled at the presidency from a reporter's unique perch inside the presidential bubble.

Each of the five presidents and six administrations from Bill Clinton to the now two presidential terms of Donald Trump have offered some of the biggest tests to the nation and the democracy, from shock and awe to high drama. Honestly, after each president, I thought that the next would bring back a sense of normality, but it didn't. Over the past three decades, the presidency progressively became more intense with each news cycle.

Helen Thomas, the late dean of the White House Press Corps who covered the beat for about four decades, told me, “Each president does the best they know how.” That statement is being challenged today with the stories that juxtaposed her truth.

Sherrilyn Ifill, the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University, notes that “we have had a political sea change in American political life” in the modern presidential history of the past 30 years. She details that the presidency “has been weakened, I would say by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.” Ifill, the former head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said for Clinton “trust” was eroded by his personal life, and for George W. Bush trust was broken when he worked “to gin up war without an appropriate predicate.” There was a dynamic of change for the better for a moment with the “feeling of restoration” with the presidency of Barack Obama.” However, that restoration for the history of the first Black president was countered with "a lot of racism in the country.”

Ifill, who, in the Biden administration was considered for the U.S. Supreme Court, said, “the hatred of Clinton by folks on the right” and the negative media campaigns against him began the process of what we see now with “targeted” personal attacks. It began the opening to disrespect a president. “The hyper-partisanship really began during the Clinton era.” Obama had the tea party and its digs to make his presidency unsuccessful. George W. Bush dealt with the questions of his legitimacy as president after the Supreme Court decision.

"We had a brief respite with President Biden, who wanted to save the soul of the nation,” said Ifill, reflecting on our current president, Donald Trump. “President Trump, who deliberately set out shredding former notions of the presidency, entered the office not as the adult in the room. [He] entered the office as the person in the room who was inviting the American people to be their worst selves.”

The discontent about American presidents has a far reach. Iconic Emmy-winning actor, singer, writer, producer, director, and LGBTQ+ activist Billy Porter, who is in London performing in the musical “Cabaret,” said of this holiday, “It’s time to tell the truth. America is not now, nor have we ever been better than this!"

To the dynamic Pittsburgh native, President’s Day never truly had any meaning “because this country was founded by a bunch of white men who owned slaves and then plundered said slaves, my ancestors' bodies, to build this country. And here we are all these hundreds of years later still begging our Presidents and our government to remember the ‘promise of America.’”

He reminds us what the Founding Fathers put forth: "That 'all men are created equal, blah…blah…blah…?’ What we are experiencing in this reckoning moment is the truth of AmeriKKKa. Ain’t no promise. Ain’t never been no promise — for us. We can’t unsee it! We must name the ‘thing.’ so we can heal from the ‘thing.’ Or not! Until then, for me, President’s Day is just another nocuous federal holiday off."

The conflict between yesterday's presidential political heroes of sorts and modern-day presidents and real-life drama remains, Ifill explains, “The presidency is not what it ever was in the past and, if we are to get past Trump, the next president will have to start fresh at building a new conception and vision for the 21st century.”

April Ryan is the Washington bureau chief and senior White House correspondent for BlackPressUSA. Ryan is the longest-serving Black woman reporter in the White House press corps and has served on the board of the prestigious White House Correspondents' Association for 25 years. She is the author of “Black Women Will Save the World,” “The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America,” “Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House” and “At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White.”

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