And so we reach the end of an unpresidented era.
The reference is, of course, to one of Donald Trump’s many Twitter misspellings, this one found in his 2016 description of the seizure of a US. navy drone. He meant to call it “unprecedented.” But Trump’s mistake gave us a coinage perfect for this moment. For four years, America has been an unpresidented nation – in some fundamental sense, a nation without a president.
Yes, I know. Trump was in the Oval Office, duly elected and sworn. When not golfing or tweeting, he even performed some presidential duties. He attended summits. He signed documents. He gave speeches.
But those are not the only things a president does. A president sets the tone. He ennobles and emboldens. He calls us up from the minutiae of individual lives to the stirring vistas of national mission. They’ve all done this, Republicans and Democrats alike, those you admired and those you could not stand. Through war, scandal and economic disaster, they exhorted us to vision and courage.
Think Franklin Roosevelt telling us “the only thing we have to fear.”