May 22, 2020--Books

Everyone knows Trump doesn't read.

Surely, not Foreign Affairs, not The Atlantic, not even Golf Digest where there are lots of pictures.

But now we know who in Washington and New York do read--every guest appearing on programs on CNN and MSNBC.

Because of the pandemic, guests phone in from home offices via Zoom, Skype, or FaceTime and invariably their home offices include their book cases, which serve as an attractive background.

Jon Meacham, an NBC Contributor who is also a Pulitzer Prize winning historian, not surprisingly has more books on display on his elegant shelves than anyone else.

Often more interesting to me than hearing what Eugene Robinson has to say about Trump and China, is what I can see he has been reading. I was especially tickled when I saw one day that he had on the shelves the same edition as I do of Ron Chernow's biography of President Ulysses S. Grant.

Sad to say when I snooped around to see what the Fox News hosts and guests have on their bookshelves, I've been discovering that few have bookcases as part of their home TV studios and there are no books in sight. On mantels, though, on display, most had a few airport-art tchotchkes.

What's this all about, I wondered. It didn't, though, take more than a moment to figure it out. America is divided I many ways.

December 6, 2018--RIP #41

I spent most of yesterday watching everything I could find about George H. W. Bush and of course took in every minute of his funeral service.

After Jon Meacham's moving and amusing eulogy, with all four living presidents seated before him in the first row, when it appeared that Trump was paying attention, Rona said, "I generally don't believe in miracles--in fact I don't--but wouldn't it be wonderful if after what Meacham and others are said about Bush 41's life Trump, while still living, had a version of a deathbed conversion and vowed that for his remaining days--which could be relatively few--he would assume the semblance of a normal president?"

As stirred as I was by the stories about Bush's character and overcome by similar thoughts about his example as president and human being, I said, "Sadly I don't think that God has the power to perform such a miracle. It's too big even for him." 

May 22, 2018--Advice From Eleanor Roosevelt

Obviously written in a hurry so that Jon Meacham, as a scholar, could weigh in indirectly and dispassionately about the threat to American democracy posed by the Trump presidency, the resulting book, The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, is at best half satisfying. 

As if it were an extended term paper, where quality and grades are measured by how many quotes and footnotes can be crammed in (we all remember those kinds of assignments), by that standard the book is a success for the Pulitzer Prize winning historian--in 272 pages it includes at least 500 quotations and many hundreds of footnotes. The bibliography is longer than the index.

Weighed on an actual scale, Soul of America earns an A+.

It is about how if we think these times are dangerous, let history show (and Meacham does in a bumpy narrative of stitched-together chapters) that we suffered worse--the Civil War, the Depression, the McCarthy era, isolationism, and the reign of the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow among others--and because of our better angels we overcame. 

Message re Donald Trump delivered.

But in case the message is unclear, he ends with advice derived from history about how to resist and act.

For example, Meacham urges Americans not to despair but rather "enter the arena," "resist tribalism," "respect facts and deploy reason," and above all "keep history in mind."

In regard to resisting tribalism he quotes Eleanor Roosevelt, progressive conscience of her husband, Franklin Roosevelt--

Ever practical, Eleanor Roosevelt offered a prescription to guard against tribal self-certitude. "It is not only important but mentally invigorating to discuss political matters with people whose opinions differ radically from one's own. For the same reason, I believe it is a sound idea to attend not only the meetings of one's own party but of the opposition. Find out what people are saying, what they are thinking, what they believe. This is an invaluable check on one's own ideas . . . . If we are to cope intellectually with a changing world, we must be flexible and willing to relinquish opinions that no longer have any bearing on existing conditions."

Meacham adds--"If Mrs. Roosevelt were writing today, she might put it this way: Don't let any single cable network or Twitter feed tell you what to think. Wisdom generally comes from the free exchange of ideas, and there can be no exchange of ideas if everyone on your side already agrees with one another."

December 1, 2105--George Herbert Walker Bush

There's lots to savor in Jon Meacham's comprehensive and readable biography of our 41st president.

Though it has the over-puffed title, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, it is for the moment definitive and hard to put down.

Also, at less than 900 pages, it is appropriately proportioned.

Bush was not the kind of or accomplished enough or sufficiently complex a president to call for 900 pages much less four volumes and counting as is the case for the larger-than-life Lyndon Johnson as represented at vast length by Robert Caro.

In truth, even in the Meacham book, H.W. (or Poppy) was not destined to become president. To the manor born, yes, wealthy, assured, to win a seat in Congress, likely, to head the CIA, certainly, but the presidency, no. Not destined for that.

And to think of his life as an odyssey, also a bit much. Odysseus had an odyssey. Not Bush. Not really.

But what do I know, Destiny and Power went right to the top of the New York Times bestseller list two days ago. A week after it was published.

Here's a flavor.

First from pages 464-5 about his wise thinking as commander in chief after building a genuine global coalition and, via Desert Storm, led the battle to oust Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait.

He got that job done in 100 days and though pressed by the Republican political right refused to have our troops take Baghdad and bring down Saddam Hussein. Here's why--

Our stated mission, as codified in U.N. resolutions, was a simple one--end the aggression, knock Iraq's forces out of Kuwait, and restore Kuwait's leaders. To occupy Kuwait would instant shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero. It would have taken us way beyond the imprimatur of international law bestowed by the resolutions of the Security Council, assigned young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator, condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability and destroy the credibility we were working hard to reestablish. [My italics]

If only his son, Bush the Second, W, 43, rather than being guided by God, as he put it, had sought advice from his father before his disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Then, on page 144, there is one of my favorite LBJ anecdotes--

In 1969, while a member of the House of Representatives, Congressman Bush was thinking about running for the Senate. He had one of the safest Texas House seats, a place on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, and a secure congressional future. He wondered, "Was the Senate worth the risk?"

To help him decide, he flew to Stonewall Texas to ask ex-president Johnson. Who better to ask?

"Mister president, I've got a decision to make and I'd like your advice. My House seat is secure and I've got a position on Ways and Means. I don't mind taking risks, but in a few more terms, I'll have seniority on a powerful committee. I'm just not sure it's a gamble I should take. Whether it's really worth it." 

"Son," Johnson said, "I've served in the House. And I've been privileged to serve in the Senate too. And they're both good places to serve. So I wouldn't advise you what to do, except to say this--that the difference between being a member of the Senate and a member of the House is the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit."

Bush took Johnson's advice, gave up his House seat, ran against incumbent Ralph Yarborough, and promptly lost.

The rest of the story is Bush's odyssey.