ROBERT HORNAK
FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE QUEENS REPUBLICAN PARTY
RAHORNAK@GMAIL.COM
Robert Hornak is a veteran political consultant who previously served as deputy director of the Republican assembly leader’s NYC office and as executive director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail.com and @roberthornak on X.
This week we celebrate President’s Day. With the very odd relationship New York has with the fifth president we sent to the White House, it’s worth looking back to see if this really is an unprecedented time and the grass was greener, or if this is just par for the course.
We tend to look back on our past leaders as if they were larger than life figures better than ordinary men. We celebrate them, naming monuments and schools after them. But people are just people, some polite and humble, others vulgar and venal, including those who served as president. Not all of them were George Washington.
Five American presidents have come from New York. The only states with more are Ohio with seven and Virginia with eight. The New Yorkers to serve were Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roos- evelt, and most recently, of course, Donald Trump. They all had their controversies.
Van Buren, from Kinderhook, was our 8th president, and the second Democrat to hold the office following Andrew Jackson. He was notable for being the first president actually born a United States citizen, the first not being of English decent (he was Dutch), and the first who didn’t speak English as his native language.
Van Buren was unpopular for his continuation of Indian removal policies, including what was called the trail of tears, and for the panic of 1837, a financial crisis that began under Jackson that led to a seven year depression known for bank failures, falling wages, deflation, rising unemployment and failing businesses. He was nicknamed Martin Van Ruin and lost his race for reelection.
Millard Fillmore, from Buffalo, was our 13th president, and the last of the four Whigs to hold the presidency. He was very controversial for his support of the Compromise of 1850, a set of bills intended to avoid conflict between the states, but wound up creating more disunity, especially over the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which empowered Federal Marshals and required ordinary citizens to capture, detain, and return escaped slaves. This was so controversial it led the dissolution of the Whig party, which declined to nominate him for reelection.
Possibly the most complicated and controversial New Yorker to hold the office was Theodore Roosevelt. Remembered more for his legacy of conservation, Roosevelt also had his controversies. He was accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions in his 1904 reelection campaign, and of not paying NY property taxes in 1898. He expanded the Monroe Doctrine with the Roosevelt Corollary, which declared a U.S. right to intervene in Latin America to stabilize their economies and to block future European efforts at colonization. It established his “Big Stick” concept of diplomacy and the justification to use American military power to protect U.S. interests.
TR was also controversial for his belief in eugenics, supporting sterilization of “less desirable” people and considered Indians to be savages. While he was applauded for inviting Booker T. Washington the White House, he was also excoriated for the Brownsville Incident of 1906 where it was claimed he ordered the dishonorable discharge of an entire regiment of 167 Black soldiers without due process.
Then came Franklin Roosevelt, the only president to serve more than two terms. FDR was known for interning 120,000 Japanese Americans by executive order, considered by many to be one of the darkest moments in U.S. history. He also ordered the mass deportation of Mexican Americans and enforced strict immigration policies against Jews trying to escape the Holocaust.
When several of his New Deal policies were struck down by the Supreme Court, he tried to pack the court with Justices of his choosing, a move seen as violating the separation of powers. He also tried to have the Attorney General pursue sedition prosecutions against the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, and the Hearst newspapers for opposing many of his policies.
As we celebrate Presidents Day let’s remember that every president was a human first. Many were course, vulgar, racist, and subject to the same temptations we all are. Looking back, even just at the New Yorkers who held the office, today’s controversies seem very par for the course.
