THE REPUBLICAN CLUB BY ANDY THOMAS

PART 4 OF A 17 PART SERIES ON FAVORITE ART AND ARTISTS

 

"The Republican Club" by Andy Thomas

 I originally planned on doing this series on favorite art/artists for the month of June (2022), using Emil Nolde's Pentecost painting on Pentecost Sunday (June 5). But between having several interviews I wanted to post in early/mid June and the time pressure to have this ready on time, I decided to move it back a month.

So this brought up another issue - Independence Day. I didn't have a patriotic favorite for that day... or did I. Then I realized that I do have a favorite painting I forgot to include for what started as a 16 part series, which is appropriate today: "The Republican Club" by Andy Thomas.

The faithful will remember me sharing this on President's Day, with Thomas' "The Democrat Club" also included. Both are great paintings, but I definitely like "The Republican Club" better. Which most people who know me would expect, but not for the reason they expect.

Yes, my politics tend to be Republican. In fact, some of the times I don't vote for the Republican is because I lean Republican. For example, in '96, I voted Libertarian in the 10th Congressional District race (Indiana) because the Libertarian was pro-life and the Republican was absolutely not. A decade later, for a city-council race, I looked at the voter guide where one of the questions was if they thought taxes needed to be raised. As you'd expect, most Republicans said no - there was just one exception - and most Dems mistakenly thought they did - again, with one exception. The incumbent for my district was the Republican exception and the challenger was the Democratic exception. So guess who I voted for?

Likewise, a lot of my favorite presidents are Republican as well. You'll of course recognize the Bushes, Trump, Reagan, Nixon, Ford, and Lincoln in the forefront. Maybe you might notice Coolidge and Grant in the background. A closer look will reveal my favorites: McKinley, Taft, Arthur, Garfield, and Hayes. Also, if you asked me if I had a choice of living President to have lunch with, that would definitely been our 43rd President, George W. Bush (with - believe it or not - Carter and - more unbelievably - Clinton in the next spots.

But the reality is that the reason I like "The Republican Club" better than "The Democrat Club" (left) is because I like one painting better than the other. And the reason I like one better than the other is ascetics. I think (just my opinion) the faces looked more natural in the Republican one than some of the Democrats (I didn't really like the representation of Andrew Jackson, for example). 

I do have one question for Andy Thomas if I ever have the opportunity to interact with him. I notice there a brunette lady in both pictures, in the background, but a little closer up than some of the Presidents pictured. Who is she supposed to be?

As I am typing this, I realize one classic that would have been appropriate is John Trumbull's iconic "Declaration of Independence" (I'll post that below) or his "George Washington Resigning His Commission." But while they are good paintings of historical events, they don't make the top of my list in art.

What is your impression of "The Republican Club?" If you want to look at "The Democrat Club", you can google it or you can see it on my President's Day blog (to go to it, click here) - do you agree with me liking one over the other? Same or different reasons? And since I shared Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence", what do you think of that in comparison to Andy Thomas' work?

One more comment. The next three days, I'll be developing on the theme of where our country is at with three more paintings, none of which are specifically about our country, but still...

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR PRESIDENT'S DAY

"The Republican Club" by Andy Thomas.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when Juneteenth become a Federal holiday, wasn't President's Day one suggested to be eliminated in its place? Really?

 

Not me. I'll admit that when I grew up, both Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays were observed; I was surprised and even as a Junior-Higher disappointed when they combined the two for "Presidents' Day". 

"The Democrat Club" by Andy Thomas

I've read biographies on Taft, McKinley, Garfield, Hayes, Arthur, Filmore, LBJ, and Madison, as well as reading the auto-biographies of George W. Bush, watching a four hour PBS program on Theodore Roosevelt, and watching PBS' 10 hour The American President in '00 and reading the print version. On my list include Tyler, Cleveland, Carter, Benjamin Harrison, Polk, and Coolidge. (I've also read bios on three time candidate William Jennings Bryan, former Vic President John Calhoun, and former speaker of the house "Uncle Joe" Canon, with Patrick Henry on the to read list.)

I have mentioned in a previous blog that I also read Presidential ranking books. I especially enjoyed Ivan Eland's Recarving Rushmore, which took a different approach to ranking Presidents.

Allow me to mention some random thoughts about Presidential history. 

• You can divide Presidents into three eras: 1) No facial hair (Washington to Buchanan), 2) Facial hair (Lincoln to Taft, with Andrew Johnson and McKinley being exceptions) and 3) No facial hair II (Wilson on).
• Five of the first seven Presidents served two full consecutive terms; the next one was Grant (#18), and the following one was  Wilson (#28).
• The first four Vice Presidents who ascended into the Presidency (Tyler, Filmore, Andrew Johnson, and Arthur) were not elected to a term of their own; the following four were (Teddy Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, LBJ), and the ninth was not (Ford).
• We have had multiple two-term Presidents only twice: Jefferson/Madison/Monroe and Clinton/George W. Bush/Obama. (You might make an argument of Franklin Roosevelt/Truman as being a technicality.)
• The longest streak of one-or-less term presidents was eight, from Van Buren to Buchanan in a 24 year period. 
• Whigs won two elections, but neither winner survived his term.
• I read in a book about a Presidential candidate riding a train to a conference, stopping to pick up his running mate and introducing him to a governor of a neighboring state and a young Congressman from his home state. That quartet were then-future Presidents James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. (The book, which I highly recommend, was Dark Horse: The Surprise Nomination and Political Murder of James Garfield by Kenneth Ackerman.)
• Three Presidents have had direct descendants become president (John and John Quincy Adams, William and Benjamin Harrison, George H. W. and George W. Bush). Only one of the set was re-elected.
• Since I started being aware of Major League Baseball in the '70's, the Yankees have been to the World Series eleven times. Their seven victories ('77, '78, '96, '98, '99, '00, '09) all occurred when a Democrat was in the oval house; their four losses ('76, '81, '01 and '03) were during Republican presidencies. 

Let me close with some thoughts of Andy Johnson's excellent paintings above. It makes me smile seeing certain comparisons of who sat in each spot between the two pictures: Lincoln and FDR, Nixon and Clinton, Ford and Carter, Teddy and Wilson. But I'm looking forward to seeing his "Libertarian Club" painting. He can do it of the LP nominees for President - it will probably be a while before he has enough LP Presidents to be called a club.