Trump vs. the elites
Our new president talks like Andrew Jackson
Donald Trump’s inaugural address was an uncompromising declaration of populist ambition. In it, he declared, ““We are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the people.”
Such rhetoric is reminiscent of Gen. Andrew Jackson, America’s seventh president. If Mr. Trump wishes to follow in the footsteps of “Old Hickory,” as Jackson was known, it will take more than tough talk. He must genuinely attack the status quo in Washington.
Jackson was a force to be reckoned with. After his victory at the Battle of New Orleans, he became a national celebrity. His presidential tenure was also hugely consequential. His allies adored him, his enemies hated him, and everybody respected him. Jackson looms large even today. A 2015 survey of political scientists ranked him the ninth-best president of all time. And, of course, his image still adorns the $20 bill.
There are parallels between Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump. Both were plainspoken, brash men of action. Both were famous for what they did outside the political realm. Both were known to hold grudges.
Yet none of this makes for a great president. Jackson was special because he democratized political power, seizing it from corrupt elites and returning it to the people. To be a “Jacksonian” president, Mr. Trump must do likewise.
The decade preceding Jackson’s presidency was a bad time for good government. Double-dealing state politicians used inside information to build vast personal fortunes. National politicians transformed whole Cabinet departments into personal political machines. And then there was the “Corrupt Bargain” of 1824. Though he had won fewer votes than Jackson, John Quincy Adams was declared the president by the House of Representatives, thanks to the efforts of Speaker Henry Clay, who became Adams’ secretary of state.
In 1828, voters sent Jackson to Washington riding a wave of populist outrage. Old Hickory took his mandate seriously and set about cleaning house. He fired huge swaths of federal employees, replacing them with his own loyalists. He also destroyed the Bank of the United States, which he condemned as a corrupt bastion of economic privilege.
Neither of these actions was farsighted. Jackson’s mass firings initiated the “spoils system,” whereby politicians used government jobs to reward their political pals. Meanwhile, the destruction of the bank set back public finance for nearly a century.
Still, Jackson was determined to seize political power from the elites, and he succeeded. Apart from Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, nobody was as effective as Jackson in altering how government operates day-to-day.
If Mr. Trump wants to govern like Jackson, he too must clean house.
People today think politicians are bought off by wealthy donors, bureaucrats are too insulated from typical Americans, and Beltway insiders look down upon them. As far as average voters are concerned, it’s nothing but “corrupt bargains” in Washington.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump tapped into this anger better than any presidential candidate in generations. But his economic agenda — whatever its merits — will not give power back to the people. Protecting jobs and rebuilding American infrastructure is hardly a Jacksonian agenda. If Mr. Trump wishes to seize the mantle of Old Hickory, he also has to go after the crooked ways of Washington.
He should demand greater bureaucratic accountability, return power to states and localities, force Congress to end its love affair with special interests, close the revolving door between politics and lobbying, and campaign against members of his own party who put themselves above their constituents. In short, he has to seize power from the arrogant Beltway elite, and return it to the people.
This will be no easy feat. Many presidents have tried to do this, and failed. The status quo is hard to defeat because powerful people in Washington like things the way they are. But this is the challenge that Donald Trump set for himself.
Whether he’s enough like Jackson to pull it off remains to be seen.
Jay Cost, a senior writer for The Weekly Standard, lives in Butler County.