During ABC’s broadcast of ‘The View’ today, Joy Behar told her co-hosts that Presidents’ Day should not honor “losers” like Donald Trump or Richard Nixon.
“Today is Presidents’ Day, but not everybody is on board with it,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said.
“There’s an op-ed calling to take it off the calendar, claiming that most people aren’t even sure what they’re celebrating.
“It used to honor Presidents Washington and Lincoln, but it expanded to all presidents depending on what state you’re in.”
Behar said, “I think it’s a good day to buy a mattress, and also maybe toiletries now that we have the president that…that would be like ‘Oh, it’s Donald Trump day, let’s buy a toilet.’” (See video below)
Sunny Hostin: “I like that.”
Behar: “Why do we include some of these losers like Trump and Nixon, for example, or this guy Johnson who came after Lincoln?”
Ana Navarro said, “My presidents’ day includes George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. April Fool’s Day will be for Trump.”
Behar: “Maybe it’s who’s on Mt. Rushmore, just that batch.”
Navarro: “We have 11 federal holidays, and you can say this for about any of them, whether it’s Memorial Day or Presidents Day, a lot of people forget the real meaning and the real celebration of it. I think in a year like right now after January 6. We should be celebrating good presidents and historical presidents and the fathers of our country.”
Behar: “But there’s a lot of controversy around the Founding Fathers because most of them owned slaves, and people are very, very mixed about that.”
One op-ed called for #PresidentsDay to be striked as a holiday, claiming most American’s aren’t sure what they’re celebrating — #TheView panel reacts. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/5WR535jxKg
— The View (@TheView) February 21, 2022
Is there a connection between presidential leadership and narcissism? #TheView panel weighs in. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/vXWNbqlvT0
— The View (@TheView) February 21, 2022
Politico also called for canceling Presidents’ Day today in part because of Trump:
Which brings us back to the day: What’s the problem with Presidents Day?
The superficial problem is it a confection. In federal law, the holiday is still designated as “Washington’s Birthday.”
It is a fluke of the calendar that the first president’s birthday, February 22, falls so close to the birthday of Lincoln’s, February 12.
This, combined with the wishes of car dealers and mattress sellers, led to people transforming the holiday on the third Monday in February as an all-purpose “Presidents Day.”
The name suggests we honor Lincoln and Washington no less than Richard Nixon or Warren G. Harding or Donald Trump.
This hints at the more profound problem. A democracy really shouldn’t be mythologizing presidents at all.
From the left it seems obvious that we don’t need a holiday honoring 46 presidents, all of them men.
From the right it seems obvious that we don’t need to be honoring the aggrandizement of Washington-based politicians.
Yes, by all means let’s keep a day off to reflect on lessons of the American past. But let’s make this about real history — an invitation to humility and renewed commitment to national purpose — rather than mythological history, an invitation to arrogance and complacency. A better name would be Citizens Day.
It seems likely Lincoln himself would agree.
