Trump and Grover Cleveland

Mr. Trump, You're No Grover Cleveland

Donald Trump is attempting to do what no other person has done since Grover Cleveland; lose the White House only to win it back in a later election. Now, to be fair to many of those other one term Presidents, many didn’t even attempt to run again after their loss (e.g. Hoover, George H.W. Bush) and others didn’t have the capacity to (e.g. Harding, Kennedy). Nonetheless, it doesn’t hurt to reflect on old Grover, discuss why he lost election, and why he was able to win it back.

Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President

Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland was the first Democrat to win the presidency after the Civil War, and was one of two Democratic presidents, followed by Woodrow Wilson in 1912, in an era when Republicans dominated the presidency between 1869 and 1933.

Cleveland was elected mayor of Buffalo in 1881 and governor of New York in 1882. While governor, he closely cooperated with state assembly minority leader Theodore Roosevelt to pass reform measures, winning national attention. He led the Bourbon Democrats, a pro-business movement opposed to high tariffs, free silver, inflation, imperialism, and subsidies to business, farmers, or veterans. His crusade for political reform and fiscal conservatism made him an icon for American conservatives of the time. Cleveland also won praise for honesty, self-reliance, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism. His fight against political corruption, patronage, and bossism convinced many like-minded Republicans, called "Mugwumps", to cross party lines and support him in the 1884 election, resulting in his first term in office.

In his first term, Cleveland was faced with the task of filling all the government jobs for which the president typically filled under the spoils system, but Cleveland announced that he would not fire any Republican who was doing his job well, and would not appoint anyone solely on the basis of party service. He also used his appointment powers to reduce the number of federal employees, as many departments had become bloated with political time-servers. In 1887, he signed an act creating the Interstate Commerce Commission. He and Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney undertook to modernize the Navy and canceled construction contracts that had resulted in inferior ships. Cleveland angered railroad investors by ordering an investigation of Western lands they held by government grant. As President, he was instrumental in identifying and championed many of the reform issues that would be taken up later by Teddy Roosevelt and progressives in the early 20th century.

Then came the election of 1888. As in 1884, the election focused on the swing states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Indiana. But unlike that year, when Cleveland had triumphed in all four, in 1888 he won only two, losing his home state of New York by 14,373 votes. Cleveland won a plurality of the popular vote – 48.6 percent vs. 47.8 percent for Harrison – but Harrison won the Electoral College vote easily, 233–168. After losing the 1888 election to Harrison, he moved to New York City and joined a law firm.

The 1892 election restored him to the White House. He won the popular vote in all three of his presidential elections—1884, 1888, and 1892. Cleveland was a formidable policymaker, but also garnered criticism. As his second administration began, the Panic of 1893 sparked a severe national depression. Many voters blamed the Democrats, opening the way for a Republican landslide in 1894. He intervened in the 1894 Pullman Strike to keep the railroads moving, angering Illinois Democrats and labor unions nationwide; his support of the gold standard and opposition to free silver alienated the agrarian wing of the Democrats. Critics complained that Cleveland had little imagination and seemed overwhelmed by the nation's economic disasters—depressions and strikes—in his second term. By the end of his second term, he was severely unpopular, even among Democrats.

Even so, his reputation for probity and good character survived the troubles of his second term. Biographer Allan Nevins wrote, "[I]n Grover Cleveland, the greatness lies in typical rather than unusual qualities. He had no endowments that thousands of men do not have. He possessed honesty, courage, firmness, independence, and common sense. But he possessed them to a degree other men do not."

After leaving the White House, Cleveland served as a trustee of Princeton University. He continued to voice his political views, but fell seriously ill in 1907, dying in 1908. Today, Cleveland is praised for honesty, integrity, adherence to his morals, defying party boundaries, and effective leadership and is typically ranked in the middle to upper tier of U.S. presidents.

Comparisons to Trump Today

Well, it doesn’t take a genius looking at this comparison to say that Trump is no Grover Cleveland. In fact, on the issues of the day, Trump is on the complete opposite side of the fence.

• Cleveland was a man of high repute, who sought to improve government by keeping quality people in their jobs regardless of party. Trump is a felon, philanderer, and wrath filled hypocrite, seeking to fire any Democrat in the Civil Service and replace them with a GOP toadie. Even his supporters do not dispute this.

• Cleveland won the popular vote in all three of his elections, losing office only on account of the Electoral College. Trump has never won the popular vote, and only became President after sneaking in through the Electoral College “inside straight.”

• Cleveland created the Interstate Commerce Commission. Trump, through his appointees on the Supreme Court, are trying to dismantle the vast authority of interstate commerce.

• The previous President, Chester A. Arthur, had opened 4 million acres in the Dakota Territory to settlement by Executive Order, effectively stealing the land from Native Americans who had signed treaties with the U.S.. Cleveland rescinded the order and demanded settlers leave the terrirories. In key swing states during the 2020 election, counties with high Native American populations overwhelmingly voted against Trump.

So yeah, Trump is trying to do what nobody outside of Cleveland did, but he is in many ways Cleveland’s antithesis. And like Cleveland’s day, the national vote and the Electoral votes were as divisive as they are today, with only a few thousand votes in various states swaying the Presidency. Trump has allayed that into a plausible path to the White House.

But there is one other major difference in the two. Grover Cleveland was not a bad President. He worked to make the country better and correct the course after years of one party rule. He wasn’t perfect by any means, but he moved the country incrementally toward where it needed to go. The depression of his second term occurred early enough to the point it could hardly be attributed to anything he did, yet he took the blame for it all the same. There are reasons he is considered in the middle range of Presidents, and ahead of such recent Presidents as George H.W Bush, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush. He wasn’t all that bad.

Trump on the other hand was abyssmal as President. He fostered and enhanced many of the deep wounds of this country and made them worse. He failed to push back against our foreign adversaries. He started a ruinous trade war with China, and increased tarriffs sparking inflation. He utterly failed to contain and minimize the COVID epidemic and offered horrible direction to those in government working to slow it down. Worst of all, he initiated a tantrum on January 6th that resulted in an insurrection seeking to upend our form of government that has worked for almost 250 years. This is why he is ranked by historians as close to the bottom, if not dead last among our Presidents.

God help us if he wins in November.

PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day

When we shorthand Presidents by their number, such as “46” being for Biden and “43” being for George W. Bush, or Trump as the 45th, that math isn’t exactly right. Biden is not the 46th person to be elected President, nor is Trump the 45th.

The reason is due to Grover Cleveland. Technically, he is just the 22nd President who served two non-consecutive terms. However, reference to Cleveland is as the “22nd and 24th Presidents.” So, there have actually only been 45 different people to date who have served as President, and Grover is counted twice. Trump is seeking to become the “45th and 47th President” but the total number of people serving as President will remain at 45 unless Joe Biden gets out of the race and whoever succeeds him as the Democratic candidate wins in November.

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

I’ve studied Grover Cleveland. Grover Cleveland was a decent reformist President. He won the popular vote in three straight elections.

Mr. Trump, you’re no Grover Cleveland.

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