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A Further Perspective
Nixon’s Three-Day Gift
What should still be Washington’s Birthday is now an empty holiday weekend.
This is Richard Nixon’s centennial year. Partisans still have strong emotions about him: the Left, which finally triumphed over him with Watergate; his own supporters who recently filled Washington’s Hotel Mayflower ballroom with a celebratory centennial dinner in his honor.
There are two non-partisan groups who should be always grateful to the 37th president, for he gave them a priceless gift: a reason for an annual three-day sale—the Presidents’ Day weekend. The groups are used car and mattress salesmen.
In 1970, Nixon did a pre-Obama pre-emption. Instead of asking Congress to convert the George Washington’s Birthday weekend (still its official name), he simply issued a Presidential Proclamation urging all Americans to celebrate all of the nation’s presidents. Hence, “Presidents’ Day.” Calendar publishers, non-nosy news media (that is, most of them) and the aforementioned sales-happy merchants swallowed the suggestion without so much as a “What’s this?”
To date there have been 43 presidents (44 presidencies, because Grover Cleveland’s two terms were not consecutive). Washington’s Birthday has long been a nationwide holiday. Originally a stand-alone, it became part of the three-day system created by Congress with the 1968 Monday Holiday Act. For years, school children had given Washington recitations prior to the day. Newspapers and magazines ran features extolling his career and accomplishments. Historian James Flexner once described him as “the indispensable man,” for without him it is unlikely the fledgling republic could have survived its early years. All that seems to have fallen away.
Now, thanks to Richard Nixon, we have a three-day weekend the purpose of which no one remembers, only that is called the Presidents’ Day Weekend.
Nixon, in issuing his proclamation wanted his fellow Americans to honor all presidents. It is doubtful he thought through that idea, for to honor all means to honor none. Would he have wanted us to honor, say, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison, and Andrew Johnson with the same reverence that we might show George Washington and Abraham Lincoln? Even allowing for the probability that all presidents did the best they could, their contributions to the nation have hardly been equal.
Why was George Washington frozen out of recognition on what is still, officially, his special weekend? There is more than one cause. Many schools no longer focus on leaders when teaching American history. They (and textbook authors and more than a few present-day historians) hold the view that history is a bottoms-up process and that leaders gradually emerge, rather than seizing the reins and pulling the people along. The truth comes, in part, from both the push and pull processes.
A definite contributor to the decline of Washington in the minds of the public is visual imagery. He came from a period long past, when men wore powdered wigs and women wore hoop skirts. In Lincoln’s time, clothing styles, particularly for men, looked much more recognizable than silver-buckled shoes and long waistcoats.
The folks at Mount Vernon, Washington’s estate on the Potomac River, do an energetic job of working with history teachers and creating readable Washington material and traveling exhibits to restore the Father of the Country at the head of the presidential pantheon. Still, it is a constant effort.
As for Nixon, he doesn’t even get credit for his gift from the retail salesmen who are indebted to him. Most today are too young to remember that it was he who bestowed on them their wonderful three-day-sale weekend.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
About the Author
Peter Hannaford was closely associated for a number of years with the late President Reagan, beginning in the California Governor’s office. His latest book is Presidential Retreats.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (26) | Leave a comment
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drudge ette obama| 2.18.13 @ 6:23AM
So this Obama guy gets a very expensive golf lesson from Tiger Woods on President's Day weekend. Taxpayers expense.
He would do a lot better spending the weekend with Dr. Ben Carson, boning up on the disaster of Obamacare.
Joe Carter| 2.18.13 @ 6:28AM
Mr. Hannaford,
While President Nixon did issue an executive order designating the third Monday in February as a national holiday, he did not change the name from "Washington's Birthday" to "Presidents Day." That is a commonly shared American myth. The name of the federal public holiday remains "Washington's Birthday" (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/6103), though some states and local governments now use the more inclusive "President's Day."
PCC| 2.18.13 @ 9:28AM
Dear Mr. Carter,
Assuming you are correct (I couldn't be arsed to check the link, which must be definitive), I would gladly support a movement to restore to George Washington the honor which belongs to him alone for his selfless and unmatched contribution to the founding of the U.S.
Brubaker| 2.18.13 @ 11:47AM
Title 5 USC 6103 explicitly states: "Washington's Birthday, the third Monday in February." The United States Code (federal law) is as definitive as it gets.
Perhaps you should be "arsed" (?) to do a bit of your own research.
kenc| 2.18.13 @ 10:24PM
Thank you; I was about to make the same comment. Always best to get one's facts straight before writing a piece such as this.
Jack in Wi| 2.18.13 @ 7:41AM
Get rid of Presidents Day, Martin King Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day. The only people who get off are the leechs of government. Let them work like the rest of us.
Drunken Sailor| 2.18.13 @ 12:55PM
Why not labor day as well?
Jack in Wi| 2.18.13 @ 2:16PM
Everybody gets off on Labor Day and Memorial day, not just goverment hacks.
C. S. P. Schofield| 2.18.13 @ 8:13AM
While I consider the reasons the Left hates Nixon to be the usual collection of bushwa, I have also never really understood the tendency on the Right to defend the man. He was a dyed in the wool Statist buttinski. He presided over the creation of the BATF (the worst of the Federal LEOs). He was, in modern terms, a RINO, with the sole exception of his positions regarding Communism.
His downfall is a case in point of the fact that the Left will do anything to attack somebody with an R next to their name, even if he agrees with most of their pet projects.
PolishKnight| 2.18.13 @ 9:57AM
CSP, I think the left's dirty attacks go back to the LBJ administration and their attacks on Barry Goldwater portraying him nuking a little girl even as LBJ's nuclear policy was no different.
After that, Nixon was portrayed as a meanie (they did the same to Bob Dole) and Nixon, rather than turning their slur against them, actually wound up taking the bait with an enemy list and later Watergate. Then they portrayed Reagan as a dunce. Then GHB was a rich jerk. Then Dole. Then GWB was an idiot dupe of Cheney. Then they played the mormon card on Romney.
In the meantime, the sleaze factor of Democrats has been laughable of late. Bill Clinton was a rapist and suspected murderer. Dole makes millions from his own crazy apocalyptic pseudo-scientific religion. 2004 featured the left running a war hero who bashed his own fellow vets as war criminals and a sleazy trial lawyer. Perhaps Bill Clinton deserves credit from the left for establishing a precedent that the average leftist voter doesn't care about scruples anymore. Just give 'em race entitlements and welfare for the majority of Dem voters and promise to make Sweden (how, they don't really say) for the useful idiots.
Al Adab| 2.18.13 @ 11:58AM
Hello old friend. Interesting to note is it not the quality of our chief executives since first: direct election of Senators and second: since the momentum increase toward direct election of the President. Where are the giants in either institution? We have watered down our expectations (and increased our excuse making) exponentially over the last hundred years. Popularity is no replacement for competence.
Bob K| 2.18.13 @ 6:26PM
Democracy, with the help of populist tyrants, will eventually trump all the cards that the founding fathers gave us to keep a Republic.
Appleby| 2.18.13 @ 9:29AM
In Ontario Canada the day is called "Family Day." It was declared by our disgraced Premier Dad, Dalton McGuinty, bestowed upon the peasants at no cost to himself -- so he'd get the credit and our bosses would have to pay us for a day when we do not work. He did it to save his Liberal heinie from losing an election. His later "gifts" were less successful. Recently he shut down the government and ran for the exit with pitchforks and torches close behind.
PolishKnight| 2.18.13 @ 9:45AM
Imagine the bruhaha if Martin Luther King's birthday holiday was converted to "African American day" which would probably be appropriate since that's the purpose of the holiday. But if that were to happen, the Orwellian style PC'ers would then advocate an additional 11 holidays: Women's day, Asian day, Hispanic day, gay day etc. to fill up the current 12 special privileges groups with their own month (no white male month or day, of course.)
MLK day is the only Federal holiday named after a particular person. So Nixon helped to take white males out of the holiday system and the left completed the process of Obama-izing the system by making a holiday named after a black man. When Obama says "Americans" agree with him, he means race entitled non-whites and unwed mothers because the USA's government and infrastructure is now largely controlled by them: The media, education, bureaucrats, judges, etc. with the exception of the military and police but that will soon follow.
PolishKnight| 2.18.13 @ 9:47AM
Oops, forgot Columbus day which the left has managed to convert into a white male bashing day.
loulou| 2.18.13 @ 11:20AM
How about combining African American Day with Black History Month--a twofer!
Al Adab| 2.18.13 @ 12:19PM
Such serve only to divide rather than unite us. Are we American citizens or are we identified by the racial, ethnic, or socio-economic group to which we belong?
PolishKnight| 2.18.13 @ 12:57PM
There's a cute line in the leftist parody of right wing values show "American Dad" where the primary character says in the opening song: "And he's shining a salute to the American race! Oh boy it's swell to say... Good Morning U.S.A!"
The fact is that Americans have been divided by race, ethnic, and socio-economic group since the founding. It was the cause of a civil war. Recent Irish immigrants rioted in NYC at that time. Throughout the early 20th century, there were racial and ethnic tensions between protestants and Catholics almost as bad as Northern Ireland. Nothing new there.
In addition, there's a variety of competing interests represented by lobbyists. The hope of the right that everyone will view themselves as anonymous, individual U.S. citizens and only look at national issues is not only naive, but laughable. The left sneers at this naivety by claiming that a "color blind system" is really about preserving white male privilege (except for loser white guys in trailer parks, but who cares about them?)
Get over it. Politics in a democrat is about representing your electorate. That doesn't mean pandering to them via entitlements at others' expense but it should definitely mean protecting their legitimate interests. Otherwise, why not get rid of the US military and Constitution and become a world citizen of the United Nations?
Bob K| 2.18.13 @ 6:30PM
I was about to remind you that you missed St. Patrick's day which is celebrated for about a week in my area.
PolishKnight| 2.19.13 @ 9:39AM
Are the Irish in your area still Democrat fools and hypocrites who vote Democrat year after year even as the left bashes white people and the Irish try to live in white neighborhoods?
Sadly, the Poles in Chicago are not much better but I heard they're wising up.
Michele San Pietro| 2.18.13 @ 11:54AM
Nixon was a great President, but not as great as Ronald Reagan in my opinion, if anything because of the Watergate.
PolishKnight| 2.18.13 @ 1:01PM
I read Stein's review of Nixon and he has a few accomplishments: Opening up China and some dealings with the USSR. That's great... but as I like to hammer on this forum: the PRIMARY goal of a politician should be (drum roll)
Protecting and advancing his electorate.
You may say that's selfish but isn't the point of capitalism supposed to also be selfish and looking at the bottom line? Is the PRIMARY purpose of the US military to defend the Constitutional republic, or to help out other Democracies or even just loose allies?
For all the talk here of leftist socialists living in la-la land and not caring about what they claim to preach about, and that's not invalid, the right needs to think more about what matters too. Romney's loss to a lousy president is a wake up call. Wake up!
RJ| 2.18.13 @ 11:32PM
At the time, I thought Nixon was great and he was the hometown hero, but Watergate taught me to put my faith and loyalty in principles, not politicians.
And it took a few more years for me to learn that Nixon's approach, of accommodating big government or trying to deflect it with an alternative plan, is a losing game. Under his Presidency, EPA and OSHA were established. It didn't take long for them to get out of control. Nixon also instituted wage and price controls and took the dollar completely off the gold standard. I learned from Reagan that Nixon's path was not the way.
Infantryman| 2.18.13 @ 12:33PM
Mr. Hannaford, thank you for your article. You look old enough in your picture to probably have experienced the same thing I did when going to school way back when. Most Home Rooms had pictures of George Washington hanging on the wall behind the teachers desk. He looked like he was supervising us, which was just as well since we needed a lot of that. After our history courses and what I learned at home there was no question in my mind that the Father of our Country was indeed next to Jesus Christ the greatest man, ever. And this was Lane High School, Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, Marse Robert and Stonewall Jackson country, all great men and stiff competition. On a somber note, it's going to take someone along the lines of Washington if we are ever to get our odious cultural and political mess cleaned up and I'm not hopeful we shall ever see his likes again.
RJ| 2.18.13 @ 2:45PM
"Presidents' Day" is a meaningless holiday. It would benefit us to learn more about the character and accomplishments of George Washington by having a meaningful day of remembrance of him.
Unfortunately, George Washington's birthday is not the only holiday that has become less meaningful. Christ is less and less part of "Christmas;" Easter is not as focused on Christ as it used to be. Many people think Thanksgiving was an expression of thanks to American Indians rather than God. In the meantime, Halloween, however has gotten more popular. It says something about the change in American culture.
PolishKnight| 2.18.13 @ 3:32PM
I enjoy the series of PBS "Rick Steve's Europe" on two levels. It's a well written program but simultaneously, it reveals the left's love/hate relationship with Europe and especially WESTERN Europe. The birthplace of their beloved Karl Marx and where their ideology is also practiced to as close as their ideal as possible, it's also full of Europeans and exotic, fun European culture and technology. It's like Disneyworld for leftists. And like Disneyworld, typical leftists can only visit and not live there.
The rest of the year, they loath men in the states with European ancestry (white males) because such men here are loyal not to European socialism but rather British notions of independence and freedom from statist rule. But since this analysis is a bit complicated they simply bash "white male privilege" even as they travel to Europe and coo and gush over white males running things. They carefully avoid the unsafe "ethnic" districts that are similar to Detroit and Southeast DC where limosine liberals avoid treading.
Over in Europe, they still celebrate customs and traditions during Christmas and Easter that the same leftists (probably even Rick Steve's himself) would wish banished from public performances if they were held here. What a wonderfully dishonest, morally and intellectually bankrupt philosophy they hold. It makes the shaker religious cult seem rational by comparison.