Historical midterm parallels

It's common to analogize President Trump to his bellicose Indian-killing predecessor Andrew Jackson or perhaps to Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's vice president elevated by assassination who worked to undo the good work of the Civil Rights Amendments. But presidential historian Russell L. Riley suggests another parallel to another president known for his racism: Woodrow Wilson, who became enamored of his own vision for the country and sought to make the midterm election of one hundred years ago all about him. Riley shares Wilson's manifesto to his fellow citizens, offered as World War I wound down; it sure sounds like Trump's baseless bravado about a "red wave." (Read it substituting "Republican" for "Democratic" -- Wilson was a Dem.)

“My Fellow Americans: The Congressional elections are at hand. They occur in the most critical period our country has ever faced or is likely to face in our time. If you have approved of my leadership and wish me to continue to be your unembarrassed spokesman in affairs at home and abroad, I earnestly beg that you will express yourselves unmistakably to that effect by returning a Democratic majority to both the Senate and the House of Representatives. … "

Wilson's party lost badly in the voting. Riley opines that Wilson's exhortations merely reminded voters that they were sick of being kept on pins and needles by a leader who thought his own ideas and impulses should override all opposition.

Wilson — like Trump — had made himself an unwelcome guest at the breakfast table, where most Americans prefer to begin their days without disagreeable intrusions from the White House. And there was, based on Wilson’s own proclamation, one good way for the citizens of his day to prevent more of the same: send the opposition party to Congress to stuff the president back into his constitutional box.

Vote we must.