We had Reagan the Magnificent, Bush the Kind, the Clinton Crime Family, Bush the Compassionate, Obama the Detached, and now Trump the Improbable.
Andrew Jackson was the most complete bad ass to ever win the Presidency, with the exception of George Washington. He was a common man, born to poverty, raised by a widow who earned her keep raising the family of her kin. He was absolutely fearless, and wore the love of his country on his sleeve. He, more than any other man, fulfilled America’s Manifest Destiny. He did this on the field of battle in 1814 at New Orleans. Great Britain, the most powerful country in the world, controlled northern North America, or Canada, and it wanted more. The Louisiana Purchase gave us title to the land in question, but that transfer was considered invalid by the British. Our title to that land was cleared with blood, by an army under Jackson’s leadership. One of his lieutenants, Sam Houston, later brought Texas into the fold, and his political protege, James K. Polk, won the war with Mexico, and acquired California and much of the west. Polk also negotiated the peaceful addition of the Oregon Territory, making our continental nation whole. That was all Jackson’s work, and it was a fulfillment of the dream of the Founding Fathers. They didn’t fight a War of Independence for a narrow strip of land on the east coast of a great unexplored continent. They wanted it all, and Jackson delivered.
He set this all in motion before he ran for President in 1824. The entire American political establishment cooperated in denying him his victory, led by what today we would call the Wall Street money men. Back then it was called the Second Bank of the United States. When he ran again it was one of the truly historic political landslides in American history. American democracy, as we know and practice it today, began with Jackson in 1828.
Which brings me to Donald Trump. It’s not fair to compare any man to Andrew Jackson, and with Trump it’s a non-starter. But, in strictly political terms, he is a Jacksonian to his core. This pampered son of a wealthy New York real estate investor has the chance to be as consequential, politically, as Andrew Jackson.
It’s up to Mike Pence to show him the way. Trump is entering a land far different from anything he’s seen before. He must rely on his family and his inner circle for support, and in some cases, guidance. On constitutional questions, I believe his chief adviser will be Pence. And Pence knows the case for Article V cold. When the time comes, he’ll make the sale to Trump, and we’ll all work together to save the Constitution through the use of Article V.
If that’s all Trump did, we’d have to call him Trump the Resolute, or something.
reaganproject.com 