“We’re (All) Better Than This!” (Elijah Cummings)

Some time ago a friend posted on FaceBook that never in his life time had a president been more maligned, insulted, victimized, castigated, condemned, mocked, derided, and degraded as Donald J. Trump.  Another friend posted that never before has a president’s family been so viciously ridiculed and belittled as Donald J. Trump’s family.  This is not true.  Americans have always lambasted our presidents for their policies, programs, values, and even their personal quirks.

James Madison was called “Little Jemmy” because of his short stature. James Buchanan, who said  that workers should be able to get by on a dime a day, was mocked as “Ten Cent Jimmy.”  When Woodrow Wilson instituted the draft in WWI he was accused of “committing a sin against humanity.”  Franklin Roosevelt was attacked as an “un-American radical”.  Richard Nixon was famously known as “Tricky Dick” and LBJ was called a “murderer” and a “war criminal.” Reagan was called the “Teflon president” because accusations against him never seemed to stick. Barack Obama was labeled “a Muslim.”  Yes, Americans have always lambasted presidents and their families.   

When a member of the House Judiciary Committee chastised Professor Karlan last week for her reference to Mr. Trump’s son, I was somewhat taken aback. His rebuke was brutal.  Karlan’s comment, he said, was “disgusting” and “unhinged.”  A stinging rebuke came from Melania Trump, too,  “(Karlan) you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it.” Karlan apologized as she should have.  But the hypocrisy of the “Right” got under my skin, just as the hypocrisy from the “Left” gets under my skin these days.

Has Bill O’Reilly apologized for his comments about Michelle Obama in 2008  (“I don’t want to go on a lynching mob against Michelle Obama unless there’s evidence”)…that she feels America is a bad country? Has Rush Limbaugh apologized for his claim that Michelle Obama “is not proud of her country unless she’s getting what she wants from it,” or for calling Chelsea Clinton “a dog” when she was 12 years old, or his comments about  Amy Carter who he described as “the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of this country”? Elizabeth Lauten bashed Malia and Sasha Obama  for their short dresses:  “Try showing a little class,” she wrote, “Rise to the occasion.  Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at the bar.” Malia Obama was called “a typical street whore” and “ghetto street trash” after wearing a shirt with a peace sign on it at age 11. 

Geoffrey R. Stone, a law professor at the University of Chicago, writes of another president who was chastised by both press and opponents with these names and labels:  liar, despot, usurper, thief, monster, perjurer, ignoramus, swindler, tyrant, fiend, coward, buffoon, butcher, pirate, devil, and king.  He was charged with being “cunning, thickheaded, heartless, filthy  and fanatical.”  He was labeled by his enemies as “Abraham Africanus the First.”  We know him as Abraham Lincoln.