This presidential campaign should be interesting, as that annual Coney Island hot dog gorging contest could be called “interesting.” For that matter, you could call our national experience thus far in 2020 interesting. And why do drivers create traffic jams by slowing down to gape at a roadside wreck? They find the sight interesting.
Anyway, barring one more surreal 2020 development, over the next few months we’ll all be provided a good gape at an interesting campaign between President Trump and former Vice-President Biden.
Unsettling aspects of the incumbent’s biography: He is a business tycoon whose hotels and casinos declared bankruptcy six times. As President, Trump sends out frequent Tweets that suggest he is unhinged by media contempt for him, not skilled in English, and the world’s oldest adolescent. Trump’s loyal supporters have a reaction to some of his statements that’s unusual among loyal supporters. They cringe.
Unsettling aspects of the challenger’s biography: In 1987, then a Senator running for president for the first time, Biden plagiarized a speech by British politician Neal Kinnock — bizarrely, since that speech presented Kinnock’s impassioned personal biography as the son of a Welsh coal miner. After three more decades of maturation, Biden has been wandering off into even spookier regions of The Twilight Zone. He now comes across as an uncomfortable old fella working in front of a far-left ventriloquist or a muddled old fella who might suddenly bark out a complaint about the Boston Braves. Or both.
Has America ever experienced a presidential campaign as dreadful as this one is shaping up to be? Yes, several. After virtually consulting respected historians — actually, I just browsed a few web sites— I chose The Great Embarrassment of 1884: Grover Cleveland vs. James Blaine.
New York Governor Cleveland was known as “The Buffalo Hangman,” not figuratively. (Erie County Sheriff was a tough job back then.) Cleveland was also famed for another enterprise, which might have served as inspiration to a later president or two. This one produced a child born out of wedlock, a big deal in 1884.
Parental awkwardness notwithstanding, Cleveland defeated Blaine. His major presidential legacy turned out to be a civil service reform act that expanded the number of protected government positions. Countless millions of future government employees might have recalled Grover fondly . . . if they could recall him at all.
Maine Senator Blaine was famous for — maybe you know this trait of certain presidential nominees — corruption. His involved railroad money. Blaine famously mailed a letter that effectively acknowledged his corruption, signing it with the poignant “My regards to Mrs. Fisher. Burn this letter!”
The campaign turned on chants, the online news of that era. Cleveland’s supporters took to the streets, chanting, “Burn this letter! Burn this letter!” After Cleveland won the election, they answered the Blaine backers’ derisive campaign chant of “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?” by adding “Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!”
A statue of big old Grover was installed in 1932 outside Buffalo’s City Hall. I don’t know whether it’s been knocked down recently by woke warriors, but it might have been, since Cleveland did sport a bushy walrus mustache looking pretty representative of, you know, the wrong privilege.
Well, good luck enduring this presidential campaign. If the whole production strikes you as unwatchable and you long for the good old days of American political civility, recall Cleveland vs. Blaine. And, tempting as it might be, please don’t vote drunk
Cool history! Fun read and spot on.