The President's Bully Pulpit and American Heroes

One thing that the whole George Floyd riots have taught us is that a lot of people don't know much about historee, as the song goes.

So I'd say that President Trump has a golden opportunity to visit a bunch of monuments and tell us why the American hero so honored is important to us. It ought to be pretty simple. Maybe it should be too simple so that liberals and The New York Times and the fact-checkers can amplify the whole thing by contesting the president's words.

First, the political heroes.

George Washington: Statue on Mount Rushmore. He did two important things. After winning the War of Independence, he went home to Mount Vernon. Then, after being elected two terms as President, he went home to Mount Vernon.

Hey President-for-life Xi! Hey President-for-life Putin! Cat got your tongue?

There is nothing more important than for politicians to put in a couple of terms and then go home. You are not that important, geniuses, and if you are stupid enough not to realize that then you are certainly someone that needs to be forced to retire.

Thomas Jefferson: Statue on Mount Rushmore. He wrote the Declaration of Independence. A magnificent proclamation.

Alexander Hamilton: Statue in Washington DC. This guy did so many things, including put an end to the political career of Aaron Burr. But the big thing was to set up the new nation's finances with the creation of the National Debt.

James Madison: Statue in Washington DC. He is considered the "father" of the US Constitution, perhaps the most amazing piece of statecraft ever. Yes, the ideas that went into the Constitution, like the separation of powers, were ideas developed over the previous century. But He Did It -- with the other delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

Andrew Jackson: Statue in Washington DC. President Jackson was the guy that terminated the Second Bank of the United States and plunged the US into financial turmoil for a decade. Not good.

Abraham Lincoln: Statue on Mount Rushmore. He freed the slaves.

Then the ordinary nobodies that invented the modern era:

John D. Rockefeller: He brought safe illuminating oil to the masses and reduced the price of oil by 90 percent.

Andrew Carnegie: He founded the US steel industry and brought the price of steel down by two-thirds. This was particularly important for rails for railroads, since the old cast-iron rails had a way of breaking.

Thomas Edison: Yes, he invented the light-bulb, but also got electric generation off the ground. The importance of electricity to today's world is inestimable.

Wright Brothers: Developed and flew the first powered airplane.

Henry Ford: Brought the cost of personal transportation down to about one year's wages for the average worker. Never before in history had the common man been able to travel around needlessly.

J. Pierpont Morgan: Notable for his work in railroad bankruptcies, Morgan managed the Crash of 1907 and brought the US economy quickly back to life. Unlike the Federal Reserve in 1929.

And that's about where I'd stop. Because once you get to President Wilson, who got us into World War I instead of letting the European powers exhaust themselves into a tie, once you get to President Roosevelt, who got us into World War II by provoking Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor, once you get to the post WWII presidents you are talking politics not national heroes.

But I think that President Trump could do a lot worse than stop at the shrines of these heroes and eddicate the young'uns.

Who obviously, despite the expense of over $1 trillion a year on gubmit education, are obviously not well eddicated.