By One Measure, Mr. Trump Gets an A

When I developed an interest in American presidential history during my high school years, I learned that historians had different yardsticks for rating our past presidents.  One measure ranked a given president according to how well he fulfilled his campaign promises.  I recall that our eleventh president, James K. Polk, fared very well under this scheme because he apparently got done – I don’t recall what he did – whatever he had pledged to do during his campaign.  I felt then and still do that such a standard – let’s call it the “Polk Approach,” although I acknowledge that so labeling it probably unfairly denigrates Mr. Polk’s achievements — obscured what I consider the true measure of a given president’s worth:  the severity of the challenges s/he faced – whether or not s/he addressed them or even was aware of them during the campaign — and the success with which s/he handled them. 

Yesterday, July 20, President Donald Trump concluded six months back in office, the one-eighth mark of his second term.  During his first six months, we have seen a whirlwind of activity:  the pardoning of insurrectionists whom he incited to attack our Capitol on January 6, 2021; the terrorizing and dehumanizing tactics he has employed against immigrants of color (including Latin citizens); the deployment of our active duty military on the streets of an American city; the wanton dismissal of federal employees and dismantling of our federal structure according to his partisan whims and aberrant policy views on such as foreign humanitarian aid, the environment, science, and education; the ramrodding of a law enriching the wealthy, depriving the impoverished, and increasing the federal debt; the emasculation of Congress (admittedly, he had some assistance from the cowards over there); the coopting of the federal courts; the browbeating of institutions of higher learning; and the intimidation of independent media sources.  (I know; I beg your pardon for omitting some you would have added, but my typing fingers and your eyes only have so much strength.)  It’s all flown by so fast that it has literally been impossible to keep track of it all, even if you haven’t – as I have – tried to maintain some emotional remove.

I ventured in a post a couple of months ago that Mr. Trump and his adherents recognized that at best, they only had the support of half of the American public, and understood that they needed to employ the Nazi model of the 1930s to quickly consolidate their control of our country if they were going to be able to reshape it to their vision.  They began immediately, have moved with alacrity, and proceeded ruthlessly.  They have achieved more of their mission more quickly than even I imagined they could – and we both know that’s saying a lot.

So, what’s Mr. Trump’s current grade?  Well … it depends on the standard you prefer.

If you take my preferred method for assessing president’s performance — the severity of the challenges s/he faces, and the success with which s/he resolves them – it would be difficult for Mr. Trump to fare well, since his and his acolytes’ actions are the severe challenge we face.

By that standard, he gets an F.

On the other hand, given the President’s clearly expressed intent during his campaign to transition the United States from the democracy we have known for the last quarter of a millennium to a white, Christian, straight, oligarchic American Apartheid, he’s done extraordinarily well.

By the Polk Standard, I award him an A.

That said:  let’s see where we go from here.