Why Old Hickory? Old Hickory is, of course, Andy Jackson, President of the United States, 1829-1837.Because he's an heroic figure who championed the interest of working people against concentrated wealth and defended the Union and democracy against its enemies foreign and domestic.
He was also a deeply flawed hero, a slaveowner who - unlike Thomas Jefferson - defended the institution of slavery and displaced the Indian tribes of the Southeast in a way that any American today would find it difficult to defend.
He is an appropriate hero for Americans today because he was one of history's greatest champions of democracy.
But it's also important for us to remember that even our greatest heroes were people that made choices, some of them better than others. As long as our politicians feel it necessary to constantly say that America is "the greatest country in the world," something is wrong. When they no longer feel the need to say that, and when the voters no longer need to hear it all the time, we will have regained some of the realistic confidence that made leaders like Jackson what they were.
Some people today talk about George W. Bush's foreign policy being "Jacksonian."
Well, I keep a little bust of the General (as many of Jackson's admirers always called him) setting on my desk. And every time an article appears on my computer screen comapring him to today's Enron Republicans, his eyes seem to glow bright red.
- Posted by Bruce Miller 08/21/03
Tags: andrew jackson, old hickory
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