(ThyBlackMan.com) The problem with the 24 hour news cycle is that news memory lasts only 24 hours. Certainly it does not last 70 years – say back to 1962 and Baker v. Carr, which established guidelines regarding the political-question doctrine, or even a few years earlier, to President Eisenhower and how he ran the ship of state.
And even if political memory did last longer, most people in this country under the age of 70 and would only know of things that happened years before were born if they were to engage in a serious study of history, which is rare today. Today, the media perspective on news events is not reflective of the cumulative events that have formed our society, but what someone, ostensibly speaking for the “we,” wants to happen now – at this moment.
Still, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and there really was a viable United States before you were born.
And once upon a time there was a president who was both firm and polite and also very determined to have an orderly country: President Dwight David Eisenhower, a former Five Star Army General, a rank obtained by roughly a dozen people throughout our history.
He was the President who called out the military to protect nine African American kids who, because of a Court decision, were suddenly entitled to attend the previously all White Little Rock Central High; but Governor Orville Faubus blocked the school house doors with Alabama National Guard troops.
Eisenhower federalized all 10,000 soldiers of the Arkansas National Guard, took it out of Faubus’ control and sent the 101st Airborne in full battledress to Little Rock.
Eisenhower said he would not allow the country to descend into anarchy.
This President did not suffer indignities very well. As Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during WW2, and NATO’s first Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe (SACEUR) in December 1950, he understood that order and decorum was the way that government organizations worked best. He brought that same expectation to his presidency, and when the country was on the verge of great disruption in1957, he deployed the Army to maintain order.
Today, we have a President who is considered impolite. Certainly impolite when compared to Eisenhower; or is he? Eisenhower didn’t have to tolerate the same foul mouthed criticism that attends every action that Trump takes.
Donald Trump’s impoliteness is no more than an “in kind” response to what is being dealt him. Like Eisenhower he doesn’t tolerate a lack of decorum from those working with or around him.
Of course, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Trump have very different styles. They each have very different backgrounds and life experiences. But, both made it to the top of their fields before reaching the White House.
Today’s President, President Trump, has also called out the Army, this time to quell potential massive disorder at our southern border. There is a great difference though. Today’s soldiers are relatively fewer in number in regards to their assigned task than the number sent to Arkansas in 1957; and the soldier’s task today is not on the front lines of the conflict as was the 101st in 1957. Today they are to be supportive of others who are taking the lead in repelling the invaders.
Somehow using the military to repel an invasion by foreigners is thought to be prohibited by Posse Comitatus, in the same way that it is considered inappropriate to use the military in a domestic policing role, which Eisenhower bucked, feeling it was necessary to use the military in what he considered was a particularly critical situation in Little Rock. But that having been said, both men have called upon the military, and both have been criticized by their critics for doing so.
But the two Presidents have something else in common: calling out rude reporters during a press conference. Admittedly there was no Jim Acosta attending Eisenhower’s press conferences; had there been, considering Acosta’s level of rudeness and complete lack of respect towards the Presidency, Eisenhower possibly would have secretly relished the days when he could have had someone like Acosta thrown in the stockade for insubordination.
But in fact there was a reporter who did incur Eisenhower’s wrath. Eisenhower did not yet want to publicly discuss something that was still being discussed privately. This reporter insisted upon asking a question about an issue Eisenhower was loathe to discuss.
In true Eisenhower style, he put his hands to his hips and told the press that the topic was not going to be discussed, and if they insisted upon bringing up the topic, he would simply stop holding press conferences – letting them know that the conferences were there to benefit the press more than the administration.
There was no outcry from the press. Neither was there a social media storm. And no court dared to intervene. The press understood that Eisenhower was the President, and certain decisions were left to him – especially within the White House itself, the President’s house.
Today we have a lower trial court deciding who can attend the President’s press conference in his house; and rather than telling the Court ‘where they can go’ regarding press conferences that he calls, this President is letting the reporters know that if there is a lack of decorum and respect for the office – he will merely end the conferenceearly.
It would appear that for strong minded Presidents not much has changed – except that the media has simply become exponentially more rude. And while journalism’s rudeness towards our elected officials goes all the way back to Washington’s administration, this President may not be willing to buck the court all the way to the top. We will see.
Written by Joel Goodman
Official website; http://joelgoodman.us