Populism in America is cyclical. President Andrew Jackson fought banks; politician William Jennings Bryan fought barons; Louisiana Gov. and then Sen. Huey Long fought inequality; Trump fights systems of every stripe. His crusade is part grievance and part gospel, speaking to a republic that distrusts its own elite institutions and their caretakers. Trump excels at stretching politics into follow-through performance. After all, who else would dare prepend his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the U.S. Institute of Peace in real time.
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Trump's evangelical supporters remind us that the great men of old were seldom polished and never perfect. Moses killed, yet led his people to freedom. David sinned, yet ruled with vision. Paul persecuted, yet became the greatest apostle. Scripture teaches that imperfection often precedes purpose, and greatness is rarely graceful. The Christian faithful rely on these proverbial lessons when explaining their loyal and unapologetic allegiance to such a coarse Christian. Unlike Elijah, it will be impossible to take up his mantle.
We've had a lot of them. I'm not sure how you could make it to 40 without enduring a particularly foul one.
I do think a lot of the 19th century presidents get a pass simply because they were nearly universally awful. Like, how do you rank Cleveland against Johnson or Tyler or Buchanan when it's just a race to the bottom?
Nixon was an absolute monster as a human being, but he was at least reasonably competent and politically savvy. Trump's much more in line with that earlier era of presidents - the most popular klansman or charismatic stooge of industry, but with no redeeming virtues as an actual bureaucrat.