but cannot in good
conscience support candidate
unworthy unfit
I shall continue to affiliate with the Republican Party, but I cannot in good conscience support for President a candidate who was not the real choice of his party and whom I regard as unworthy and unfit to be the Chief Executive of this nation by the tests of ability, public policies, official record and independence of character.”
The above quote from Illinois Politician Harold Ickes appeared in the New York Times today, but 103 years ago in the article, H.L. ICKES DESERTS HARDING AS ‘UNFIT’. (NYT, August 19, 1920)
103 years ago, political parties were pushing candidates unworthy and unfit to be the Chief Executive.
Mr. Ickes was talking about Warren Gamaliel Harding, who had just been nominated by the Republican party for their candidate for President of the United States at the 1920 convention.
Mr. Ickes would later go one to serve as United States Secretary of the Interior for nearly 13 years from 1933 to 1946 under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry S Truman.
The 1920 Republican convention was the one that made the term ‘smoke filled rooms’ famous.
The convention took 10 ballots to nominate Mr. Harding, who according to legend, was called into a meeting with the Party Bosses, in a smoke filled room and the Party Bosses asked Mr. Harding if there was anything … ANYTHING … in his background that might cause problems if he was nominated.
Mr. Harding, according to that legend, asked for 1 hour to think about it and came back and said nope, nothing in my background.
About Mr. Harding’s acceptance speech, Mr. Ickes said, “He proclaims himself a reactionary. He would turn back the hands of the clock and satisfy the aspirations of men’s souls by talking of a full stomach. No more uninspired and uninspiring utterance from a public man is on record in American political history.”
You remember Mr. Harding?
Even he himself felt the he was in over his head as President.
President Harding once said, “Somewhere there must be a book that tells all about it, where I could go to straighten it out in my mind.
But I don’t know where the book is, and maybe I couldn’t read it if I found it!
There must be a man in the country somewhere who could weigh both sides and know the truth. Probably he is in some college or other.
But I don’t know where to find him. I don’t know who he is, and I don’t know how to get him.
My God, this is a hell of a place for a man like me to be!”
According to Wikipedia, “In 1923, Harding died of a heart attack in San Francisco while on a western tour, and was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge.
Harding died as one of the most popular presidents in history, but the subsequent exposure of scandals eroded his popular regard, as did revelations of extramarital affairs. Harding’s interior secretary, Albert B. Fall, and his attorney general, Harry Daugherty, were each later tried for corruption in office. Fall was convicted though Daugherty was not. These trials greatly damaged Harding’s posthumous reputation. In historical rankings of the U.S. presidents during the decades after his term in office, Harding was often rated among the worst.
We, as a country, are once again in a cycle where the election mantra might be I cannot in good conscience support for President a candidate whom I regard as unworthy and unfit to be the Chief Executive.
Seems like folks who should be saying this, are not saying this.
For us and this country, my God, this is a hell of a place for us to be!
No Haiku For You 