#presidential talk

[fictionadventurer]

I have to talk about Chester Arthur. His story makes me go crazy. A mediocre president from the 1880s who's completely forgotten today has one of the best redemption stories I've ever heard and I need to make people understand just how cool his story is.

So, like, he starts out as this idealist, okay? He's the son of an abolitionist minister and becomes famous as a New York lawyer who defends the North's version of Rosa Parks whose story desegregates New York City's trolley system.

Then he starts getting pulled into politics and becomes one of the grimiest pieces of the political machine. He wants money, power, prestige, and he gets it. He becomes the right-hand man of Roscoe Conkling, the most feared political boss in the nation, a guy who will throw his weight around and do the most ruthless things imaginable to keep his friends in power and destroy his enemies.

Because Arthur's this guy's top lackey, he gets to be Controller of the Port of New York--the best-paying political appointment in the country, because that port brings in, like, 70% of the federal government's funds in tariffs. He gets a huge salary plus a percentage of all the fines they levy on lawbreakers, and because he's not afraid to make up infractions to fine people over, he is absolutely raking in the dough. Making the rough equivalent of $1.3 million a year--absolutely insane amounts of money for a government position. He's spending ridiculous sums on clothes, buying huge amounts of alcohol and cigars to share with people as part of his job recruiting supporters to the party, going out nearly every night to wine and dine people as part of his work in the political machine. He's living the high life. Even when President Hayes pulls him from his position on suspicions of fraud, he's still living a great life of wealth, power, and prestige.

Then in 1880, his beloved wife dies. While he's out of town working for a political campaign. And he can't get back in time to say goodbye before she dies. Because he's a guy who has big emotions, it absolutely tears him up inside, especially because Nell resented how much his political work kept him away from home. He has huge regrets, but he just moves in with Roscoe Conkling and keeps working for the political machine.

And then he gets a chance to be vice president. The Republican Party has nominated James Garfield, a dark horse candidate who wants to reform the spoils system that has given Conking his power and gave Arthur his position as Port Controller. Conkling is pissed, and he controls New York, and since the party's not going to win the election without New York, they think that appointing Conkling's top lackey as vice-president will pacify him.

They're wrong--Conkling orders Arthur to refuse--but Arthur thinks this sounds like a great opportunity. The only political position he's ever held is Port Controller--a job he wasn't elected to and that he was pulled from in disgrace. Vice President is way more than he could ever have hoped for. It's a position with a lot of political pull and zero actual responsibilities. He'll get to spend four years living in up in Washington high society. It's the perfect job! Of course he accepts, and Conkling comes around when he figures out that he can use this to his advantage.

When Garfield becomes president, Arthur does everything he can to undermine him. He uses every dirty political trick he can think of to block everything that Garfield wants to do. He refuses to let the Senate elect a president pro tempore so he can stay there and influence every bill that comes through. He all but openly boasts of buying votes in the election. He's so much Conkling's lackey that he may as well be the henchman of a cartoon supervillain. On Conkling's orders, he drags one of Garfield's Cabinet members out of bed in the middle of the night--while the guy is ill--to drag him to Conkling's house so he can be forced to resign. He's just absolutely a thorn in the president's side, a henchman doing everything he can to maintain the corrupt spoils system.

Then in July 1881, when Arthur's in New York helping Conkling's campaign, the president gets shot. By a guy who shouts, "Now Arthur will be president!" just after he fires the gun. Arthur has just spent the past four months fighting the president tooth and nail. Everyone thinks he's behind the assassination. There are lynch mobs looking to take out him and Conkling. The papers are tearing him apart.

Arthur is absolutely distraught. He rushes to Washington to speak with the president and assure him of his innocence, but the doctors won't let him in the room. He gets choked up when talking to the First Lady. Reporters find him weeping in his house in Washington. Once again, death has torn his world apart and he's not getting a chance to make amends.

Arthur goes to New York while the president is getting medical treatment, and he refuses to come to Washington and take charge because he doesn't dare to give the impression that he's looking to take over. No one wants Arthur to be president and he doesn't want to be president, and the possibility that this corrupt political lackey is about to ascend to the highest office in the land is absolutely terrifying to everyone.

Then in August, when it's becoming clear that the president is unlikely to recover, he gets a letter. From a 31-year-old invalid from New York named Julia Sand. A woman from a very politically-minded family who has been following Arthur's career for years. And she writes him this astounding letter that takes him to task for his corrupt, conniving ways, and the obsession with worldly power and prestige that has brought him wealth and fame at the cost of his own soul--and she tells him that he can do better. In the midst of a nationwide press that's tearing him apart, this one woman writes to tell him that she believes he has the capacity to be a good president and a good man if he changes his ways.

And then he does. After Garfield dies, people come to Arthur's house and find servants who tell them that Arthur is in his room weeping like a child (I told you he had big emotions), but he takes the oath of office and ascends to the presidency. And he becomes a completely different man. His first speech as president mentions that one of his top priorities is reforming the spoils system so that people will be appointed based on merit rather than getting appointed as political favors with each change in the administration. Even though this system made him president. When Conkling comes to Arthur's office telling him to appoint his people to important government positions, Arthur calls his demands outrageous, throws him out, and keeps Garfield's appointees in the positions. "He's not Chet Arthur anymore," one of his former political friends laments. "He's the president."

He loses all his former political friends. He's never trusted by the other side. Yet he sticks to his guns and continues to support spoils system reform. He prosecutes a postal service corruption case that everyone thought he would drop. He's the one who signs into law the first civil service reform bill, even though presidents have been trying to do this for more than ten years, and he's the person who's gained all his power through the spoils system. He immediately takes action to enforce this bill when he could have just dropped it. He becomes a champion of this issue even though it's the last thing anyone would have expected of him.

He oversees naval reform. He oversees a renovation of the White House. He still prefers the social duties of the presidency, but he's respectable in a way that no one expected. Possibly because Julia Sand keeps sending him letters of encouragement and advice over the next two years. But also because he's dying.

Not long after ascending to the presidency, he learns he's suffering from a terminal kidney disease. And he tells no one. He keeps going about his daily life, fulfilling his duties as president, and keeps his health problems hidden. Once again, death is upending his life, and this time it's his own death. He's lived a life he's ashamed of, and he doesn't have much time left to change. He enters the presidency as an example of the absolute worst of the political system, and leaves it as a respectable man.

He makes a token effort to seek re-election, but because of his health problems, he doesn't mind at all when someone else gets the nomination. He dies a couple of years after leaving office. The day before his death, he orders most of his papers burned, because he's ashamed of his old life--but among the things that are saved are the letters from Julia Sand, the woman who encouraged him to change his ways.

This is an astounding story full of so many twists and turns and dramatic moments. A man who falls from idealism into the worst kind of corruption and then claws his way back up to decency because of a series of devastating personal losses and unexpected opportunities to do more than he could have ever hoped to do. I just go crazy thinking about it and I need you all to understand just how amazing this story is.

[fell-in-love-with-a-fantasy]

also, polling places aren’t opening the whole day tomorrow. make sure you know when your polling places close and open.

[camelliasinensis81]

As someone who only votes based on the candidates’ golf game, I am so happy that this debate catered to my most important issue!

[fictionadventurer]

@magpie-trove

[swirlingyouintomypoems]

Anyways

[icedhotcocoa]

another thing about the trump attempted assassination situation is that in my heart it’s funny but in my mind I know this was a terrible fucking thing to happen, not just for the election outcomes/voter turnout on the right, but also ethically? ALLEGEDLY (unconfirmed) two bystanders were shot and one may be dead. even if it’s not true opening fire in a crowded area is so nightmarish and traumatizing regardless of who is being shot at

idk. we can reblog our memes all we want but let’s just try and keep that in mind

[thetourguidebarbie]

! Breaking News ! : Trump lied for ninety minutes straight, but Biden has had a stutter since childhood! Those two things are the same and now we have no idea who should be president!

[fictionadventurer]

"Mr. President, I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of this Convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my heart more quickly than a sentiment in honor of a great and noble character. But as I sat on these seats and witnessed these demonstrations, it seemed to me you were a human ocean in a tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into a spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths are measured. When the storm has passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when sunshine bathes its smooth surface, then the astronomer and surveyer takes the level from which he measures all terrestrial heights and depths. Gentlemen of the Convention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of the people.

"When our enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find the calm level of the public opinion, below the storm, from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and by which their final action will be determined. Not here, in this brilliant circle, where 15,000 men and women are assembled, is the destiny of the Republic to be decreed; not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of 756 delegates waiting to cast their votes into the urn and determine the choice of their party; but by 5,000,000 Republican firesides, where the thoughtful fathers, with wives and children about them, with the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and love of country, with the history of the past, the hope of the future, and the knowledge of the great men who have adorned and blessed our Nation in days gone by,--there God prepares the verdict that shall determine the wisdom of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but in the sober quiet that comes between now and November, in the silence of deliberate judgement, will this great question be settled. Let us aid them to-night."

When James Garfield counseled reflection rather than fervor to people at a political convention he was so right for that

[rosielindy]

I am permanently stepping back from all delusional people (mostly extended family) in my life. I don’t want to debate with them, my energy is better spent elsewhere.

From this point forward I will counter anyone who makes a statement about this traitor’s great character, especially when it’s based on staged events any fool could see are for photo ops only. No way to polish this turd, nope not having it. 💩💩💩💩

OMG, I’m really disappointed with some of the folks, I never wanted to believe they were this stupid. I refuse to pretend it’s ok. Not a matter of politics at this point, it’s a chasm between polar opposite personal values and worldviews.

Time to unleash and amplify the energy from the dawning of the age of Aquarius. It’s real, y’all.

💗💗💗💗

[orion-archives]

Please, do NOT commit suicide.

We need to stay strong. If the rapist wins (THINGS CAN STILL CHANGE, REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED WITH BIDEN) we need to STAY TOGETHER, STAND OUR GROUND AND FIGHT BACK.

Your life matters. Every single life matters even if odds appear to be against us.

Please, stay safe.

Stay alive.

For me, for you, for us, for everyone.

Stay alive.

[navysealt4t]

"i couldn't care less. whatever she wants to be is okay with me" omg ally ❤

[fictionadventurer]

I found a book on First Ladies by President's Daughter Margaret Truman and paged through it a bit, and I'm already obsessed with this story about Herbert Hoover.

Herbert Hoover had a tender heart, and his First Lady had an even more tender one--but they were loath to reveal their private feelings to the American voter and were appalled at the thought of publicizing them for political gain. A perfect example was the story of three children from Detroit, the oldest thirteen, who showed up at the White House gates to ask the President to help get their father out of jail. The man had stolen a car to keep his family from starving. President Hoover ordered a meal for the children from the White House kitchen, sat them in chairs around his desk, and talked to them about their father. He told them he was sure he was a good man, if he had children who loved him enough to travel all the way from Detroit to Washington for his sake. After the children left, Hoover called in his secretary, who saw tears on the President's face. "Get that man out of jail," Hoover said. "I don't care how you do it." The secretary succeeded in quashing the conviction--and asked the President if he could release the story to the press. "Of course not!" Hoover said.

And also with this related story further down the page.

Both Lou and the President gave thousands of dollars of their own money to strangers who wrote to the White House begging for help. Always, the gifts were anonymous, delivered through friends who were asked to investigate the pleas to make sure the money was needed.

[spookky-aint-spooky]

SAW THIS ON TWITTER AND CHOKED ON MY APPLE PIE

[bittyfromquotev]

To everyone contemplating suicide, including the ones who are not my friends and mutuals:

Please don’t give up. Even with all the new laws that Trump is wanting to put in, there will always be a safe space somewhere for you. Plus, this will be the last time he can run for president if he wins. THE LAST TIME. I care about all of you even if I don’t know you. My blog, at least, will try to be a safe space for you.

[swirlingyouintomypoems]

Anyways fuck every single person who added to those stats. I hope you’re happy in your comfy little “morally correct” decisions while the rest of us are thrown to the fucking wolves

[beepbeepsan]

Did Trump just say Biden's actions were "absolutely criminal"? Hello?