It’s strange for a country like America to have a “Presidents’ Day.” Yes, it’s origins derive from the coincidence that two of our greatest presidents’ birthdays—George Washington and Abraham Lincoln—are within ten days of each other. But, other than that strange and fortuitous alignment, why should their births be a cause to celebrate all presidents? Though Washington and Lincoln are exemplary and demonstrate the potential for great leadership, they are the exceptions that prove the rule that all presidents will be a disappointment.
It’s not their fault. After all, how can they be anything but disappointments when we as a people have piled such massive amounts of power and responsibility on them? On top of that, in the absence of a king, we look to them for some moral insight, though we know they are all politicians. The whole thing is painfully anti-republican. Why are we celebrating the decisions and whims of a single man? Are we not a nation of laws, not of men?
Yet, here we are, shutting down the post office, government offices, banks, schools, and the stock market in honor of Article II of the Constitution. Where is Congress Day? Where is Judiciary Day? I suspect we don’t celebrate the other two branches is because it’s difficult to love an institution, but easy to love a person.
People Love People
Sure, people will love their church or even their preferred branch of the military, but deep down those loves are for the people contained within them. No one will ever love our legislature like they do an executive because by design a legislature is contentious and divided. No one will ever love our judicial system because it is adversarial and demands competing points of view.
But a chief executive? Now there is a single human person, a dignified leader with a singular vision. There is a person with one point of view that shapes history. You may love or hate any one occupant of that office, but because there is only one, you actually can love this institution, especially when helmed by your preferred partisan.
It is possible to love the American presidency because it is possible to love the American president. And yet we shouldn’t. We shouldn’t love one-person rule in this country.
A Better Way to Celebrate
Here at MSLF, much of our work is focused on fighting back against one-person (or his delegates throughout the executive branch) rule. Most of our cases active today involve someone within the behemoth of the federal bureaucracy making a unilateral declaration of power and MSLF standing athwart history and saying, “Stop!”
So, please re-consider your celebration of Presidents’ Day. Instead, I would prefer we look ahead to September 17th, Constitution Day. That’s the real holiday of the Republic: a celebration of checks, balances, and divided power.
But, if you absolutely must revel in the presidency, then I suggest you look to more obscure and quiet holders of the office. Years ago, my former colleagues at the Foundation for Economic Education put together a brief, collaborative article on freedom’s best presidents. The article is short and by most professional historians’ opinion the list is undistinguished. The men listed in that article tried, each in their own way and constrained by the government that was given them upon election, to contain the scope and power of government. Now that’s worth celebrating.