The Women in White and Our First Woman President

You couldn't help but stare at the women in white last night during the State of the Union. It has been a hundred years since women got the vote and the women of the senate were showing their solidarity with those women who marched a century before. But there is another one hundred year anniversary and that is the Presidency of Edith Wilson. She took over the White House when Woodrow Wilson had a massive stroke and was hidden away in a bedroom. She really was our First Woman President even though she was not elected.

But the symbolism of all those women in the House of Representatives shows how far women have come. Edith Wilson only had three years of school and had buried a baby and a husband when she met Woodrow Wilson. She was forty four to his fifty nine and driving an electric car with the first drivers license issued in the District of Columbia. She had only been married to the President four years when he had a stroke after returning from a whistle stop tour to pass the League of Nations. The decision not to tell the public and the reluctance of the Vice President made Edith the defacto President.

She ruled for only two years and in a touch of irony the suffragettes had been chaining themselves to the White House gates for years to convince Wilson to support the vote for women. Little did they know a woman would run the White House. So the women in white are really celebrating two anniversaries, the vote for women and a secret presidency where a Woman ran the United States.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

You Know When Men Are Lying

I knew guys like Kavanaugh when I was growing up in Baltimore Maryland. I went to a prep school for a few years and right down to the accent I recognized the type. You win at any cost. I busted my tail. I heard that many times out of the Supreme Court nominee. I had heard that growing up from many guys who were headed to Ivy League Schools. Right down to the accent, the bluster, the aggressive in your face style. It is an East Coast persona you never forget. And you learn how to lie early on and you do it with a simply tactic, attack.
 
Its between the self aggrandizing tirades about sports, grades, schools, the pushing back against the Senators, there was the moments between moments which all men recognize. It is a hopeful desperate expression that shows you are just barely hanging on. After watching for eight hours yesterday I have no doubt that Kavanaugh wasn't telling the truth. The yearbook, the drinking, the sex.  It was obvious, but it was also obvious the fix was in. The good old boys club would stick together.

That East Coast swagger had gotten the supreme court nominee pretty far. He was going to use it bull his way through the Democratic Senators. He was going to cower, cajole, lie. But guys know. Like I said I have seen the type before. Right down to the yearbook and the drinking games. Win at any cost. Lie at any cost. All the way to the Supreme Court.

William Hazelgrove

Madam President Ruled in 1919

Whenever I do signings for any book I always sell a lot of Madam President The Secret  Presidency of Edith Wilson. I start by telling people we already had a woman president. Usually people laugh but then I tell them to go to .gov and read about first ladies because there in Edith's bio is the statement that she ran the executive for two years. She did. It was a great cover up of a sitting Presidents inability to govern and his wife taking over and running the United States for two years.

Hard to believe really. The next question is how come I don't know this. A lot of history is papered over with mythology. The facts get lost under agendas and historical bias. Historians are loathe to say that Edith Wilson was President. It does not fit in the Wilson historical context. It is also too fantastic to believe. How could this be pulled off? No radio for one thing. Newspapers were the primary source of news and people were not used to seeing the President.

A press that was complicit in the cover up. Or at least a press that didn't question. Yet there were papers that did speculate that Woodrow Wilson had a stroke and his wife was running the country. But it didn't get much traction. Then Edith herself made sure her tracks were covered in a 1939 memoir where she said she never made any decisions but was just a steward. None of this is true. The fact is Edith Wilson was the President in 1919 albeit unelected and ran the country until 1921. Believe it or not.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

The 25th Amendment Would Not Have Removed Woodrow Wilson When Edith Took Over

A lot of talk of using the 25th amendment against Trump but the truth is that will be difficult.  It wouldn't have worked against Woodrow Wilson either. It wasn't passed until after Kennedy was assassinated but Woodrow Wilson is the closest we have to a Trump situation. Wilson had a stroke, was paralyzed and could barely put five sentences together. His wife, doctor, and Chief of Staff came up with a plan to hide him away and let Edith Wilson run the government. They pulled it off all the way to the end of his term and basically it was the best kept secret until recently.

But there was a movement to have Wilson step down and it is reminiscent of what might happen if the cabinet tries to remove Trump. The 25th amendment says basically the cabinet along with the vice president can vote to have the president removed if the president is incapacitated or unable to fulfill the duties of the presidency. When Wilson collapsed Secretary of State Lansing made a move to have him removed. He called the cabinet together and then demanded Secretary Tumulty and Dr. Grayson come and assert the President was incapacitated.

Secretary Tumulty said  no. He said "not while the President is flat on his back." And then Lansing asked Grayson if he would certify that the President was too sick to carry on the duties of President. Grayson shook his head and said absolutely not. And then Tumulty issued a warning that he would let the President know who was trying to remove him. The cabinet meeting ended with the full cabinet wishing the President a speedy recovery.  Lansing would later be fired and in no small part because Edith and the President never forgave him for his treachery.

It is not so simple to remove a sitting President....even when they are paralyzed and bedridden and their wife is running the country.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Edith Wilson and the Twenty Fifth Amendment

The Twenty Fifth Amendment is in the news now. Many say Donald Trump cannot fulfill his duties as President because he might be crazy. See Mika and Joe. The Twenty Fifth Amendment passed in 1967 was created  in part because of what happened with the Woodrow Wilson Presidency and Edith Wilson's assumption of presidential power. Up to that point Clause 6 of Article 11 of the Constitution was vague. It said basically if the President can't fulfill his duties someone should take over. It did not even specify the Vice President.

When Woodrow Wilson had his stroke and Edith and Cary Grayson covered up his condition they were not really violating the Constitution. Few could say who would declare Wilson unfit and when Secretary Lansing asked Dr. Grayson if he he might do it Grayson refused and dared anyone to come forth and push the issue. No one did. So Edith ran the White House and essentially became our First Woman President.

But now  the 25th Amendment makes it clear. If the Vice President and his cabinet decide the President is unfit then the VP becomes President unless the President protests and then it goes to Congress for a vote. Edith Wilson would have been powerless if Vice President Marshall had taken the  inititative and had the cabinet vote on Wilson's ability to rule. Marshall would have become President and the Edith Wilson Presidency would have not happened.

So now we have Trump. Would Pence undertake such a vote? Not a chance. But at the least people know there is a vehicle now for Presidential succession should Trump become insane.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

What Woodrow Wilson's Stroke Can Tell Us About the Twenty Fifth Amendment

The New York Times has a piece on the 25th amendment and the possibility of removing

Donald Trump. The twenty fifth amendment was designed to stop what happened with Woodrow Wilson. He had a stroke and his wife, doctor, and Chief of Staff hid it from the world for two years. The twenty fifth amendment basically says that if the cabinet decides the president cannot do his job then they can vote to remove the President. This would have to be approved by the Senate but the process would start with the Presidents own cabinet. Here is where it gets interesting and might give us insight on Donald Trumps situation.

Secretary of State Lansing knew what was going on and demanded that President Wilson step down and asked Dr. Grayson and Secretary Tumulty to address the cabinet on his condition. Lansing produced the constitution and read aloud the amendment on constitutional succession. Tumulty snapped and said he didn't need the constitution read to him and that he was fully aware of the right of the Vice President to assume power. "But I will not be part of an effort to remove the President when he is flat on his back." Lansing then turned to Grayson and asked to know the Presidents condition. Dr. Grayson said the President was recovering but could fulfill his duties and then issued a warning. He said the President would be very interested to know who is plotting his removal. The cabinet members then sent on their good wishes and Lansing was left high and dry. 

Vice President Marshall never took over for Wilson because he didn't want to be President. He too said that in effect he didn't want to be accused of stealing the Presidency from Wilson. Edith Wilson ruled until Wilson's term ended. There is a lot of talk of the twenty fifth amendment now but removing a President can be tricky especially if the Vice President does not want the job and the cabinet is not unanimous. Brutus does not want to be caught in the open and so it is really who is willing to stick their neck out first. 

History does repeat itself. President Wilson fired Lansing within a year of  the meeting.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Did We Have A Woman President in 1919? Woodrow Wilson House Presentation American History TV

Presentation on Madam President the Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson American History TV CSPAN
Presentation on The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Edith and Woodrows Excellent Adventure

They were going on the presidential yacht. They did that. Just pick and go on a drive or take the ship out for a cruise. In this way they were very much like a modern couple. Little junkets of reciting  poetry around fires or going horseback riding together. But on this day they headed out and went for a cruise and came upon a small island. The President and Edith took a small launch to the island and were surprised to find it deserted. The small cottages were all buttoned up tight with the shutters drawn. So they left.

But at the dock Wilson turned and looked back. Lets go  back and see what's going on he said turning around. He and Edith returned and they saw people outside the cottages. When they saw the president and Edith they scurried back inside except for one man. He stared at Woodrow Wilson. Wouldn't you be the president? I have that honor Wilson returned. The man breathed in relief. We thought you was the Germans come to invade.

The Germans had been sinking American ships as World War I raged overseas. In  1919 there was no radio and newspapers were sporadic for many islanders. Rumors of invasion swept over the coutnry routinely. Woodrow and Edith then talked to the man and the other islanders who came out to greet them. After a lunch they returned to the launch and went back to the ship. Within a year the United States would be at war with Germany and in the hell of World War I.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
William Hazelgrove

How Did the Government Cover Up the Edith Wilson Presidency in 1919?

If you think government cover ups are new just look at the Edith Wilson Presidency. President Woodrow Wilson was struck down by a stroke that left him paralyzed and unable to govern. What should have happened was theVice President takes over. But Edith Wilson along with Secretary Tumulty and Dr. Grayson the Presidents physician conspired to tell no one of the presidents condition and have Mrs. Wilson take over as president. So the conspiracy started with three people and then involved Wilson himself who knew enough that he should of given up the presidency.

Edith began governing by using three tactics. One she would return items and basically ignore the business of the White House. Or she would scrawl on documents instructions in her child like hand and either instruct the person to wait or to take action. Or she would delegate problems off to the heads of departments. On legislation she either let it go through or signed it herself. All the while Dr. Grayson, Edith, and Secretary Tumulty kept the front up that the President was just suffering from nervous exhaustion.

Meanwhile newspapers speculated the President had gone mad, had syphilis, or had died. Some guessed he had a stroke but this did  not change the conspirators who kept Wilson out of view for five months and then decided to drive him around in the presidential limousine, propped up with his hat on, his right side that was not paralyzed facing the world. Meanwhile Edith continued to appoint cabinet ministers, fire them, scrawling orders of state and signing bills. Even when it was all over the cover up held for seventy years with Edith adding to it in her  memoir which she wrote to specifically to deny she had any role at all.

But now we know. The greatest government cover up occurred in 1919 and it involved our First Woman President. If Hillary had made it she would have been the second Woman President. But for now...Edith Wilson alone holds that title.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It....

We are at one of those crossroads in history. Ernest Hemingway and the ex patriots in France whiffed it after the carnage of World War I. The world would never be the same. Modernism arrived with tanks and the awful mass death of the trenches. The mechanized world demanded a new way of interpreting the world and the artists responded in kind. The old Victorian world was dead and in a way literary poetry and ethereal language died under the hard bitten prose of Hemingway. The world was dry and hard and remained so right up to World War II.

And we emerged victorious and frightened because nuclear arms might obliterate the planet. We lived under that shadow a long time. And then it seemed to lessen and the world seemed to put it all behind us. But we now have this. The world has changed again. People are being marginalized by technology. The Internet has literally squeezed the profit out of everything and so nobody can afford to carry anyone. The old world of the blue collar job has gone to India and robots have sopped up the rest. Our first African American president gave us a ray of hope and then collapsed under the forces that will not rest.

And now we must vote like our lives depend on it. The very dark clouds hiding under uber nationalism are the same ones that gathered in 1939 and plunged the world into darkness. The same pointed fingers that exterminated six million people are now fingering others as the root of our problems. It is a canard but it doesn't matter. People need someone to blame and there are always others willing to show us who. So vote like your life depends on it.

It might.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Madam Presidents Odds Same as Kicker on 38 yard line

That's right. Think of Robby Gould going up to kick on the 38 yard line. You assume he will make it. You assume he wont hook or someone will break through the line and get a hand on it. But there is always that possibility. In Solider Field there is wind off Lake Michigan. It gets cold. Hands get slippery. The kicker might not place the ball correctly. The ball could come off the kickers foot at an angle. It could hit the goal posts. He might just shank it.

But nine times out of ten a thirty eight yard kick  is a walk in the park. No one really doubts it. When a kicker doesn't make a kick like this people shake their heads. Some see it as  just bad luck. Others say it was not meant to be. The Gods were not on their side. They were not meant to win. Or maybe the kicker has lost it. Maybe the kicker like Robby Gold should be traded away. Maybe he is in a rut.

Madam President should have this in the bag. After all thirty eight yards is nothing The ball should fly right through the goal posts and we should have our first woman president. But things do happen. Robby Gould was the Bears go to kicker for years and then he blew some keys kicks and just like that he was traded. He doesn't even play anymore.

Madam President should take nothing for granted.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson Chosen as Literary Guild Selection

 FOR RELEASE: CONTACT: Loren Long

Nov 4, 2016 Loren.Long@Regnery.com

202.677.4420

Madam President is a Literary Guild Selection

Revealing the Hidden History of Edith Wilson in the Oval Office

Washington, D.C.—Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson has been chosen as a Literary Guild Selection. Released on Oct 17^th by Regnery, the highly researched narrative is already a History Book Club Selection with a Five Star Foreword review and an endorsement by the Washington Post. The story of the First Woman President is gaining steam. After a CSPAN filming at the Woodrow Wilson House in Washington DC, Author William Hazelgrove is making ripples with his story of Americas First Woman President.

 According to acclaimed author, Hazelgrove, if  Hillary Clinton is elected, she won’t be our first female president. Edith Wilson took the mantle of First Woman President almost a hundred years ago. Months before women won the right to vote, a woman was secretly running the Executive Office. Few know the hidden history of Edith Bolling Wilson’s presidency – until now. Author William Hazelgrove provides an engaging portrait of the woman who became the acting president of the United States in his new book Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson (October 17; Regnery Publishing; 978-1-62157-475-0; $29.99).

Assuming the authority of the Oval Office after President Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke, Edith’s presence was quietly acknowledged in D.C. circles at the time, but since then her legacy has largely been forgotten.

A senator during her time called her “the Presidentress who had fulfilled the dream of suffragettes by changing her title from First Lady to Acting First Man.” Now, the full history of America’s first female president is finally revealed.

In Madam President you’ll discover:

 Who America’s real first female president was

 How Edith Bolling Wilson undertook the office of the president

 Why Edith Bolling Wilson’s presidency was kept secret

 Why the history of America’s first female president is so significant in 2016

 What Edith Bolling Wilson’s presidency did to lay the groundwork for women in government

###

To schedule an interview with William Hazelgrove please contact Loren Long at

Loren.Long@Regnery.com or 202.677.4420

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Edith and Woodrow Wilson's Strange Road Trips

The President  had manged to get into a Coney Island wheelchair and sit out on the south portico of the White House to get air. He was wrapped in blankets and stared into the bloodless sun and wondered what had happened to his presidency. Meanwhile Edith was desperate to find something that would make the president happy or at least release him from his terrible depression over his devastating stroke.  She had begun showing him movies in the Red Room but he often fell asleep or began crying if the scenes were too intense.

Before they were married she and Woodrow would take long drives in the country to relieve stress and get away from the prying eyes of the White House. Edith wondered if it might work again and had a ramp built in the back of the White House so the President could get into the Pierce Arrow limousine. Even with the ramp it took four secret service men to lift him into the car. The agents positioned Wilson on the right side of the car with his right side facing out so no one would know his left side was paralyzed. They put his hat on and they were off.

The presidential limousine that weighed four tons and looked like something out of the Adams family went around Washington a few times and then they headed for the country. When cars passed them Wilson demanded the driver give chase and he be allowed to hold court on the side of the road for speeding. Many people were not sure the man in the back of the car was the president. Many had not heard or seen him for over a year. When he returned he was greeted by the families of the secret service men instructed to cheer.  Wilson turned to Edith with a tear in his eye..."you see Edith, they still  love me".

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

On The Book Tour of Madam President in Washington DC

The first thing you are is tired. You have just given everything at a radio interview and there is nothing in the tank but you have more interviews and CSPAN in the afternoon and you are in front of people from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation who might not be crazy about calling Edith Wilson the First Woman President. And it is the first day your book is out.

That alone is a conflict of emotions. Yes the book is a lot like a baby with all that anticipation. But there it is and there is not a lot you can do at a point. Forget that you don't know where you are and everyone knows it you have to focus. So you duck into a Starbucks for cerebral juice and hope you wont be so brain fogged in the next interview. Sleeping in a hotel room puts you behind the eight ball. Who sleeps well in a room that a thousand other people have slept?

But this is it. You either do it or you dont'. When people read your book back to you on the air you wonder who wrote it. They sound so focused, something you are not. No matter. Coffee. Uber. And then a flight back home the next day. Onward.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

How A Soaked Book Led To Madam President

I was in the bathtub reading Scott Bergs book WILSON when  I dropped it in the water. It wasn’t a spasm but a reaction to the line I read that basically said Edith Wilson was almost the president in 1919. After I hauled the book out of  the water with blue ink washing down from the cover I read on and then on and on until I reached The Papers of Woodrow Wilson in the Elmhurst Library. There buried in the tombs was a story of a woman who had only been married to the president of the United States for four years and had only two years of schooling and was required in the forty sixth year of her life to take control of the United States government and step in as president.

It is through the correspondence of the day that this story is told. 

There was no email or fax of course so people mailed each other and sent telegrams or letters. In these letters the power flowed from Woodrow Wilson to Edith Wilson as she redirected the presidential river to allow her husband to heal from a massive stroke that made him into a semi invalid who could only be wheeled out to the South portico or shown movies in the Red Room or when he was well enough taken for drives. In these dusty books I discovered that Wilson disappeared for five months and the White House ceased to function and became more like a haunted Victorian hospice than a functioning White House.

And at the center was Edith Wilson signing legislation, making appointments, orchestrating the cover-up, working on official proclamations while trying to fight the battel of the League of Nations. By the time I closed the volumes of letters and official correspondence I had my book and I had my heroine. Her name was Edith Wilson and she was the first woman president. The title flowed out from that idea, Madam President The Secret Presidency of  Edith Wilson.  And as I dug deeper I was surprised to find a love story.

Edith Wilson was a progressive woman who had buried one husband, a child , had been homeschooled by her grandmother and  had been left a failing jewelry company. By the time she met a grieving Woodrow Wilson she was a woman of means with the first drivers license in the District of  Columbia,  an electric car,and a penchant for travel and the good life. The last thing she had on her mind was marriage but Woodrow Wilson woke from his grief and pursued her like a Victorian suitor half his age. Wilson for all his academic frigidity was in reality a sensual man and the love letters would make a woman in 1919 blush. The romantic won over Edith and then he did a very curious thing. He made his new wife his partner in the White House.

 By the time they married Edith had been deciphering top secret codes and had become the President’s closest advisor and effectively began isolating him from the men around him. Edith was fierce, loyal, protective, aggressive,  and smart. The couple navigated through World War I as Wilsons health deteriorated. The final blow coming outside of Pueblo Colorado on a whistle-stop tour to promote the League of Nations. When they returned to Washington the blood clot in his brain squeezed off circulation and Wilson collapsed, paralyzed on his left side. The Edith Wilson presidency began.

 And now almost a hundred years later we entertain the possibility of our first elected woman president. The Edith Wilson Presidency has nibbled at the pages of history for a long time and maybe now with Hillary in the final stretch it is time to shine the light on the dusty pages that reside in the books never checked out. But in those pages is the story of Edith Wilson and her secret presidency. Hillary should take note of the woman who ruled before women even had the vote. She too, had it all against her. 

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Book Trailer Madam President

How Madam President Ran the White House with no Education

She did it by making it up as she went along. Edith Wilson had two years formal education as a child but she was basically home schooled. So when she found herself having to step in for her husband Woodrow Wilson in 1919 as President she had to fall back on some basic coping mechanisms she had discovered in her life. She had survived the death of a husband and child and inherited a failing jewlery company. Edith was nothing if not dogged and she persevered and turned her first husbands struggling jewelry company around in three years and became a lady of means.

She did it by delegating and by dealing with what was in front of her. Same with the White House. When Woodrow became persona non grata behind the presidential bedroom door the first thing Edith did was prioritize. If something did not have to be dealt with immediately then it might not be dealt with at all. Business was conducted by correspondence in 1919 and many letters to the President were never opened and discovered years later in the National Archives. But that doesn't mean Edith was not attending to the business at hand.

Her biggest job was one of making sure essential business was completed. This meant she had to use the men around the president and delegate away from the President who could handle very little. Edith was a gatekeeper and if she needed presidential input then she would present it to Woodrow. Few people actually saw Wilson from 1919 to 1921 who Edith did not deem essential. Think of someone who is running a household with little help. Some of the bills won't get paid. The dog might not get fed. The house might be a wreck. But the mortgage would be paid and the lights kept on and the children fed.

In this way Edith Wilson kept the United States of  American running.

Order Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

How Tough Was the First Madam President?

Tough. Woodrow Wilson had a massive stroke and left Edith Wilson  to run the White House. She had two years of schooling and no experience in government. But she had the best on the job training with Wilson who treated her as a Co President. Still, the fact remained Wilson was fighting for his life while Edith had to close out World War I and deal with America transitioning back to a peace time economy after World War I. And she was a woman at a time when the vote was still two years off.

Her life had not been easy. Her parents could only afford to send her brother to college and Edith was left to be home schooled by her grandmother. Her first marriage ended when her husband died suddenly and left her with a badly in debt jewelry company. Her first son had died after three days. Edith could have sold off the jewelry company but she dug in and took almost no salary and in a few years turned a profit. She then bought an electric car and met a lonely widower named Woodrow  Wilson.

But when the world turned upside down Edith Wilson had to make it up as she went along. Her husband was barely hanging on while she fought for passage of The League of Nations, handled the cover up of her husbands illness, made appointments, ushered bills through passage, and kept the Wilson White House together through 1921. Suffragettes demonstrating outside the gates of the White House had no idea a woman was now President.

Edith Wilson had to fill the role President except she was a woman who had the backing of no one. As Ann Richards said of Ginger Rodgers, "she did everything Fred Astaire did but she it in heels and she did it backwards." An apt metaphor for the unknown First Woman President.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Would Robotic Police Be So Bad?

The gunman in Dallas was blown up with a robot. Lot of hand wringing. Military use of a robot. Is that even fair? The gunman was taken out with no more loss of life. And you know, if you think about it. Robotic police woudl not be bad. Say you are out at night. Say you are an African American in a white neighborhood. The robotic police car pulls you over. The robot approaches. License please. Maybe the driver has a gun. The robot waits. He cannot be killed. He is armored. He is not alive. The driver pulls out his license.

Thank you. The robot runs a check. His sensors tell him the driver has a metal gun. Could you please pull out your weapon. The driver does. The robot waits. No fear. No going for his gun since he is equipped with dual tasers and for a true emergency twin nine millineters already centered. So he waits while the driver pulls out his gun. Permit please. He waits again while the driver fishes for his permit. He is not worried about him pulling out another gun. He is not worried about him turning and shooting him or driving off. He waits.

Thank you. He runs a check. Thank you sir. He hands back the liense. I pulled you over for a tailight sir. Please get that fixed at your earliest convience. He hums back to his squad car. The African American driver leaves with his gun. The robot goes back to driving around. He isnt tired. He isnt crabby. He isnt scared. He just serves the public good. What a great cop.

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Madam President Will Need a New Deal

FDR put through the New Deal because he knew the country was about to go into revolution. Doug McArthur had fired on the Bonus Army marchers and there were people who said capitalism didn't work for the many and the Russians had the right idea. Communism was more equitable. Even manufacturing understood this and one of their motivations for giving the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1933 millions of dollars and showcasing their goods was to get the country buying again and to keep it from going "Bolshevik".

The Brits just took a turn to the hard right. Not unlike what the Germans did when a paper hanger failed art student giving speeches in beer halls told them the Jews were to blame for their economic woes and he would give them back their pride and their country. And we have the Donald aping that paper hanger and promising to restore America back to her place. Close the borders and batten down the hatches and the jobs will return.

It doesnt matter if he is wrong Madam President has to recognize the  boat is top heavy and go bold with  New Deal type of programs to get people to not go down Britain's path. There is too much money at the top and it has drained the middle class. The great irony is a man worth ten billion dollars is claiming he can right the ship. A thousand families could live on his fortune for years. If he really wants to make America great, he could give back all that money. Short of that, Madam President should take a page from FDR and take note of a Britain that is no longer Great.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Crazy Old Uncle Bernie

You know that crazy Uncle. He would get you laughing. Kind of cute in a weird old man way. Liable to go off on a rant and say all those things your mother and father would frown at. Like I'm going to break up the banks. Or you can have free college. Or I will help you with your student loans. Or the woman running against him is unqualified. Or you cant sue gun manufacturers. Or we are going to take all the money from the one percent and give it to the middle class,

And then mom would say, how are you going to do that Uncle Bernie? And just like Uncle Donald he didn't have a clue. We are just going to do it. Mom and dad would exchange glances over their coffee. Crazy Uncle Bernie had been through a series of jobs and always been a little unhinged. He would pop up on MSNBC as that Socialist from Vermont and say all the crazy things everyone wanted to say and then he would disappear.

Lately though Uncle Bernie has been getting drunk and hinting that if he can't have things his way then maybe he will let Uncle Donald start coming to the party. Uncle Donald was thrown out a long time ago after a fist fight broke out at Christmas. Well maybe I'll just ask Uncle Donald to come to the party if you don't like what I'm saying he sneered at the last get together. You have to wonder if Crazy Uncle Bernie might just be nuts.

Read the First Chapter of Madam President