Old Hickory said we could take ’em by surprise
If we didn’t fire our muskets
‘Till we looked ’em in the eyes
Today I’m going to talk about Old Hickory, the hero of the War of 1812. But it’s not because of his military service that his portrait is on the wall of the Oval Office. Yes it’s true that Old Hickory, Andrew Jackson, was a war hero, he meet Donald Trump’s definition of a war hero, Andrew Jackson unlike John McCain, or my Granddaddy, and thousands of other American fathers, sons, and brothers, Andrew Jackson didn’t get captured. Now just to make it clear to everyone Andrew Jackson’s nickname was Old Hickory, Stone Wall Jackson is another man named Jackson in another war, The Civil War. Andrew Jackson was dead before the Civil War even started. Not saying anyone would get the two confused, but just in case I thought I might should make that clear.
When Donald Trump became the president one of the first things he did soon after taking office, was to place a portrait of Andrew Jackson on the wall in the Oval Office. He was president so he could put any portrait or flag, whatever, he could decorate the Oval Office as he saw fit just like all the other presidents did. Why did President Trump chose Andrew Jackson to be displayed so prominently in the Oval Office. It’s on the wall in the same place that Nixon took his famous picture with Elvis! You can look that up. Why did President Trump, or more likely Steve Bannon, place the portrait of Jackson in the Oval Office? He was sending a message to his base. Andrew Jackson was the 7th President of the United States and is on the 20 dollar bill. It’s what Jackson did as president and his base knows and admire it, President Andrew Jackson signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act. This created what would become know as The Trail of Tears, where the US Army rounded up Indians from the Southeast United States and marched them on foot hundreds of miles to Oklahoma which was out of what was then out of the United States. On the march 2,000 or maybe up to 10,000 Indians died on the bitter death march. The number of Indians that died on The Trail of Tears is not known after all, Indian lives didn’t matter. The concern was not keeping these people alive because these people were in our white country illegally, rather their purpose was to remove them from our country that was given to the white race from God. Yes God made the United States for white people and just like the Jews had to remove people from The Promised Land, the white race had to remove these nonwhite people from the land given by God to the great white race. And they also believed if it became necessary, they could build a wall to keep the Indians out. So there’s no doubt why Trump, his base and Adolf Hitler’s favorite US president was. Yes Hitler’s favorite US president look it up!
When Donald Trump first became president. and after he put up Andrew Jackson’s portrait in the Oval Office, I made a post on Face Book to all my Trump-lovin church friends. I put a picture of Trump in the Oval Office with Andrew Jackson overlooking him (if you don’t put up a picture, no one will read your post) I wrote that white supremist loved Andrew Jackson because he got rid of the Indians and I also wrote that white supremist hate Abraham Lincoln because he freed the slaves. I wasn’t expecting much of a response maybe one or two likes that would be all. I wasn’t really ready for what happened next. A friend of mine named Joey made a comment on my post. Joey was a friend of mine since we went to Ramsey Jr. High school. His sister was my age and Joey was a year behind us. That was over 40 years ago, gee I’m getting old! Joey didn’t comment on Andrew Jackson but he sure had a opinion of Abraham Lincoln. Joey made it very clear what he thought of Lincoln, how he was the worst president America ever had and just how bad he was. I didn’t reply to his comment, then a while later another one of my friends, let’s say he took exemption to Joey’s comment, and then what happened next is what is called a classic Face Book fight Joey would make comment after comment on how bad a president Abraham Lincoln was and my other friend would answer him back telling Joey he was spreading lies, then Joey would come back with something else that this evil Lincoln did. My other friend said I have a degree in history, I know much more about Lincoln than you do. I’m sure that made Joey really mad, but unknown to Joey, the other friend of mine that he was fighting with on Face Book is an American History teacher at Ramsey Jr. High School. Isn’t that ironic? Joey’s last post he challenged me to a public debate where I could defend Lincoln then Joey could tell everyone the real history of Lincoln. I didn’t reply to Joey’s challenge I unfriended him!
Now all this would be just be a little story about a couple of people having one of I’m sure many Face Book fights. But it’s what happened after we were together at Ramsey Jr. High that makes this a national story. Joey became an attorney, becoming known, with his many local TV commercials about his ambulance chasing, or what they like to be called personal injury lawyers. But Joey’s law firm is not only personal injury, he is also the attorney representing The Daughters of the Confederacy imagine that! You know the Confederate statues that I’ve writing about on my previous posts well their all owned by The Daughters of the Confederacy so Joey is always on the local news defending these confederate statues as “history”. The other day he was on the news saying that the city’s plan to move the confederate statue from the court house to a city cemetery Joey said that the city’s plan did not “meet their demands” their demands? well that’s what he said. And about the history that Joey and his people demand not to erase history. Keep in mind we’re in Fort Smith, Arkansas the end of the Trail of Tears, cross the downtown bridge over the Arkansas River and there’s Oklahoma the destination of the shameful death march. And what is there in downtown Fort Smith to remember all this history? There’s two tiny signs that reads “The Trail of Tears” that’s all and it’s best that you get out and walk, you’ll probably miss them if your in a car. Most people living in Fort Smith couldn’t tell you where these little signs are. It appears we are very selective on what history we want to remember. So when Joey made all his comments about Lincoln, you see Joey is not just your average redneck, he’s the Arkansas spokesman for one of the largest white hate groups in the US, The Daughters of the Confederacy. I don’t know if Joey represents those good daughters in any other states, but I do know one thing for sure, The Daughters of the Confederacy doesn’t have any greater believer in there cause that Attorney Joey.
I really didn’t believe that I would get that kind of response from what I thought was a simple post. I had no idea that I would offend the Trump base so much. I really thought all my life that it would be un-American to say half of things that Joey said about what most normal Americans would call our greatest president.
In the first Presidential debate President Trump was asked if he would condemn white supremist and, of coarse he refused to condemn it. But it doesn’t matter what he says, America is still waiting on that audit where Trump can release his taxes. It’s not his words, for they can’t be believed anyway, but it’s his actions. One of the first things he did when entering the Oval Office was to put up Andrew Jackson portrait. To denounce white supremacy all President Trump has to do is remove Andrew Jackson portrait and replace it with Abraham Lincoln.
Joe Biden has already made it clear that the first thing he will do as he enters the Oval Office is to remove the portrait of Andrew Jackson.
An update on the President Joe Biden Oval Office. It turns out that when Joe Biden said that the first thing he would do upon entering the Oval Office was to remove the portrait of Jackson, he didn’t mean he, himself, was going to do it. His staff had ready redecorated the Oval Office before he entered. Maybe his staff thought that President Biden was unable to do it himself. Or maybe they didn’t want to show pictures of Joe Biden taking it down because you know the Trump base is fragile, it might hurt their feelings. They replaced the portrait of Jackson with a portrait of Benjamin Franklin. I don’t know why he picked Franklin maybe it was meant to tell the Trump base to go fly a kite.