Cleveland Rocks

The nation’s 22nd and 24th president is underappreciated.

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Grover Cleveland. (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images)

The word “unprecedented” will be doing a land-office business this week as Americans grapple with the implications of having a former president hauled into court on criminal charges.

Everybody seems to think that this is but the latest step toward becoming a banana republic, but we strongly disagree about who exactly is putting our Chiquitas in a bunch. 

Is it Donald Trump, a leader of such low character that he tried to pay off a porno queen and of such incompetence that he couldn’t even do that right? Maybe his party, which has developed a moral flexibility that would make a porno queen blush?

Or is it Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is dumping kerosene on the fires of lunatic partisanship for a case that so far mystifies even his predecessor? Perhaps it’s Bragg’s party, which has become so choked with outrage over Trump’s capacity to escape its snares that it drives Democrats to riskier and riskier gambits?

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Nick Gillespie extolled the virtues of this book and Cleveland’s presidency on the Reason Roundtable last fall! A laissez-faire and humble president who refused many temptations to corruptions!

    Also, Mark Twain (a Republican) famously made his Mugwump cross party vote to vote for Cleveland against James Blaine! The only thing going for Blaine I guess is that he was from a great state which happened to rhyme with his last name.

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  2. Belisarius.Aves

    One of the seminal years of American History, 1894, when the Panic of 1893 induced turnover of Congress. The Cleveland Bourbon Democrats, favoring business and states rights, were done losing 133 seats in Congress. This paved the way for the Dems to become the populist and later Progressive Party that we know that loves itself to this day. Cleveland, "Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people." Some of the best words ever in our history. And forgotten by both parties today.

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    DougCLE

    “We’re looking for a Moses, when we should be getting ourselves ready for a Grover.”

    We already have a Moses. He’s right there on Public Square, next to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

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  4. Paul Konkol

    I was at a 4th of July celebration last year and ran across an exhibit hosted by the “Grover Cleveland Art Appreciation Society”. Awesome.
    https://www.instagram.com/groverclevelandartsociety/

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  5. Avatar photo
    DougAz

    I nominate President Ulysses S. Grant as the most underrated President. Naturally and to be added is his astonishing, brilliant, leadership, executive delegation, mastery of logistics, innovator of modern tactics (siege, trench warfare)n Unconditional Surrender during the Civil War.

    Sadly thwarted by the slave supporting Andrew Johnson, Grant should be on Mt. Rushmore.

    Source: Ron Chernow biography- Grant

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    1. Johnsmk36

      Grant enthusiasm certainly comes in waves, and seems to be at a peak the last few years, with the support of said biography and a few others. So, while a big Grant fan myself, it’s really quite hard to agree that the guy gets less appreciation than the likes of Cleveland.

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    2. Ian

      Great book.

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    Andreas Wolf

    Read this very good book a few weeks ago. Cleveland's first election seemed to have been based on him taking on machine politics as mayor of Buffalo, and everyone was experiencing the problems with that graft in their own towns. That caused a groundswell of support, now that there was a person not tainted by factions of the time.
    I think only when there is widespread disgust with the current "populist" abuses of our laws and institutions by lowlife grifters, a similar person may have a chance. Not holding my breath for that.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    He's too old and bland, but "My Man Mitch" Daniels would make for a similar Grover president today, other than fathering kids out of wedlock.

    I have friends at Purdue who initially hated him, but by the end they really respected what he accomplished. He was laser focused on keeping tuition AND fees down.

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    1. Belisarius.Aves

      Mitch is the best man of our age to never run for president. He should have run in 2012 but in today's GOP, not a chance. And he would have been a GREAT president.

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    2. Dlwondercheck

      I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING. Glad to see you beat me to it!

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  8. Avatar photo
    Alexander

    The last good Democrat in the White House.

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    1. Avatar photo
      DougAz

      The greatest Progressive Liberal Socialist President was Abraham Lincoln.

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      1. Mathias

        I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that to compliment Lincoln, or to condemn him? Ordinarily I'd take it as condemnation, which is not hard to find from some libertarian sectors or from Southerners who still haven't forgotten the War of Northern Aggression. But you also praised Ulysses S. Grant, which I would not expect from a son of the South. I'm honestly befuddled; would you mind explaining your classification of Lincoln for the benefit of anyone as confused as I am?

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        1. Avatar photo
          DougAz

          Oh I'm a Northern Union guy grew up in West Virginia as you know we left the Traitors in the east.

          Its absolutely a compliment. Lincoln did many things that by contrast a Conservative like Reagan would no do and in fact Conservatives despise. But I love.

          Lincoln:
          A. Gave away free land to the poor
          B. Started free college for the poor
          C. Enlarges government
          D. Created 1st non-Consitutional cabinet the Department of Agriculture
          E. Started the Progress income tax
          F. Started the IRS forerunner the Office of Revenue
          A few other things.

          Lincoln said
          "The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities."

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          1. Mathias

            Ah well. Those are all the reasons I dislike him. (That and the whole start-a-war-to-save-the-peaceful-Union thing.) But to each his own. He certainly was a major player in American history, and I always appreciated and emulated his passion for book-reading.

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    Javier Seravalli

    Cleveland conceded the close election in which he lost in 1888, which ultimately helped him in getting re-elected in 1892. Trump didn't follow that advice, but if he loses in 2024 maybe others will learn the lesson.

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  10. Chris Lee

    During his 1884 presidential campaign, it was revealed that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child. Cleveland admitted the relationship and explained that he had been supporting the child, then ten years old. His advisors panicked about the political implications of this admission, but Cleveland replied, “I don’t believe the American people want a gelding in the White House.”

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    1. Avatar photo
      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      Perhaps Grover was really saying he was opposed to gender affirming surgery back then? Although many men who have been snipped have said it is liberating because of the reduction of pregnancy issues.

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      Mudskipper

      I can't say that remark of Cleveland did anything to raise him in my esteem.

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      Ted Gale

      If I recall correctly, Cleveland's opponent in that election was tainted with allegations of corruption. Faced with the choice between candidate with a private scandal and a candidate whose scandals directly affected the public, the voters chose the former.

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    4. Dougrhon

      "Ma Ma where's my pa? Gone to the White House hahaha."

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      1. Avatar photo
        Alexander

        "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, The Continental Liar from the State of Maine"

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        1. Mathias

          Please tell me we're not still fighting this political campaign, gentlemen. It's a bit late for slogans to convince anybody, now that both candidates are resting in their graves. (Kidding; keep up the quotes and let's have ourselves a Mugwump rally or something. Or better: Let's have a rip-roaring Federalist vs. Republican-Democrat debate. You come up with the slogans.)

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