July 29, 2025 • 35 mins
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The Truth and Mythology of America's Presidents Series - Season 6, Episode 4
In our 4th episode for Season 6 we continue our deep dive into understanding U.S. Presidents through the analytical lens of "The Wave 1981". We start the discussion with the introductory song "From the Ashes, We Rise!" and dig into understanding Presidents through the lens of "The Wave 1981":
Part 22: Rutherford B. Hayes and the Compromise That Killed Reconstruction
Part 23: James A. Garfield and the Interrupted Awakening
Part 24: Chester A. Arthur and the Accidental Reformer
Part 25: Grover Cleveland and the Return of the Bourbon Democrats
Part 26: Benjamin Harrison and the Forgotten Civil Rights Revival
Part 27: William McKinley and the Corporate Republic
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We've seen the tide turn before,from liberty to fear, from truth
to control. But this is not the end.
This is our call to stand the rise.
To rebuild, because democracy. Is not a gift, it's a choice.
Every day, in child's gas by tyrant's hand, where truth was
drowned beneath the sand We heard the cry from far and wide,
(00:21):
a silent scream. The stars get high from
Epstein's dark unsealed decay tobump it.
Laws that strip away the mask has slipped, the right exposed.
The halls of power now deposed, but through.
The noise, A spark remained a voice not bought, not.
Bent, Unchained, a Cam and date not borne from gold but fire
Justice stories to run. The ashes we rise like the dawn
(00:45):
breaking lies with the wave as our guide we reclaim what
survived, not just for one, but for all.
We the people here, the culture of the wall, we unite, but we
born in the light. From 4 cries ringing out afar to
blood red lines in Kandahar. Authoritarians fed the flame,
(01:08):
but millions rose and spoke our name.
The firewall built from every voice.
Survivors made the noblest choice to lead, to speak, to
build a new. A global dream long overdue.
The truth they feared. We now declare the world's not
theirs. We all must.
Care from cave to Flint. From Gaza shore no realms peace
(01:28):
anymore. From the ashes we rise.
It's like the dawn. Breaking lies with the.
Wave there's our guide we reclaim what survive not just
for one life for all we the people here, the call to the
wall, we unite or we born in thelight and.
(01:58):
About left to right. It's about right and wrong.
The wave taught us how it happened, slowly, subtly, and
all at once. But we've learned, we've seen,
and we've chosen. Never again.
From the ashes we rise no more heart, for more lies With the
weather within our stride we unite the world wide tie a new
(02:21):
leader, Fortune Flay. Not for power, for the name of
every voice that dares to fight Gobri.
Born in the light. We have a fire.
We are the wave. And this time?
We choose the light. We are the wave, and this time
(02:55):
we choose the light. We've learned, we've seen, and
(03:37):
we've chosen. Never again.
From the ashes we arise. No more hate.
No more lies with the wave. Taught us.
How it happens slowly, subtly, than all at once.
But we've learned, we've seen, and we've.
Chosen never again. Welcome to the Deep Dive.
(04:01):
We sift through stacks of sources, articles, research, you
name it to pull out the key. Insights give you that shortcut
to really understanding complex topics.
Yeah, making sense of it all. Exactly.
And today we're taking a fascinating kind of analytical
journey through the Truth and Mythology of America's President
series, specifically looking at parts 22 through 27.
(04:23):
Our mission here is to figure out how these big decisions, you
know, ones based on principle and the ones born from
compromise, really shaped American democracy.
And often with these huge, long lasting effects on justice, on
equality, it's striking. Totally.
And we'll be looking at how these historical stories,
especially when you view them through the lens of the wave,
(04:43):
give us these crucial clues about power, about resistance.
And about how those authoritarian undercurrents can
sort of creep in or how people push back against them.
Right. So why these specific precedents
this particular era? Well.
What's really fascinating, I think, is how these presidencies
from the late 19th century, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur,
(05:03):
Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley, they seem kind of separate,
maybe a bit forgotten between the Civil War and the
Progressive Era. Yeah, overshadowed a bit.
Exactly. Yeah, but they actually connect
to these much bigger, you know, timeless patterns, societal
control, how the public goes along with things, that constant
struggle for basic rights. This.
Is not just a history lesson. Not at all.
(05:25):
We're not just listing dates andnames.
We want to get into why it mattered back then for the
people living through it, and frankly, why it might still
matter a lot to you today because these dynamics, they
haven't gone away. That really raises a big
question then, doesn't it? How do nations handle these
moments, these huge moral choices?
And what's the real cost? You know the hidden cost when
you trade principles for what looks like order or just
(05:48):
political convenience. OK, let's definitely unpack
that. Let's start with Part 22.
Rutherford B Hayes, a president who came into office through
what was famously known as the Great Compromise of 1877.
Infamous maybe? Right, infamous might be better.
Our sources are pretty clear. This deal basically silenced the
hopes of millions. It traded A disputed election
(06:12):
for. Well, for stability, but at what
cost? The cost was justice.
Hayes promised peace reconciliation after the war,
but the way he achieved it directly brutally undermined
racial equality and any democratic progress in the
South. It feels like a textbook example
of power winning out over principle.
Absolutely. And to really get the weight of
(06:32):
this, you need to picture the chaos of the 1876 election.
It was, well, it was a mess. The popular vote was razor thin,
but the Electoral College disputed results in Florida,
Louisiana, South Carolina, crucially states where federal
troops were still present as part of Reconstruction.
So both sides claimed victory. Exactly.
Republican Hayes and Democrat Tilden both said they'd won.
(06:54):
It created this unprecedented constitutional crisis.
People were genuinely worried about another civil war, just,
you know, a decade after the last.
One Wow. So how did they fix it?
Not through the courts. No, not really.
Through any open legal process, it came down to these closed
door meetings, these backroom deals, the compromise of 1877.
And the deal was? Democrats basically said OK,
(07:15):
Hayes can be president, but the price the non negotiable demand.
All remaining federal troops hadto be pulled out of the South
immediately. A direct concession to Southern
white political leaders. Completely.
And Hayes, who you know, had made some noises about
supporting black civil rights before he went along with it.
He accepted the deal. And our sources say this
(07:36):
effectively killed reconstruction.
It did not through law, not through debate, but through this
murky political trade. It's exactly what that wave
insight warns about. When deals are made in darkness,
democracy dies in silence. That's chilling.
So the foundation for a more equal S just crumbled.
Quietly dismantled. Not a big explosion, more like a
slow suffocation. And the consequences for black
(07:58):
Americans, you said they were immediate.
Immediate and brutal, those federal troops, They were the
last real protection against white supremacist violence.
Once they were gone, boom, Southern states move incredibly
fast to reverse all the gains ofreconstruction.
Wow, what did that look like? It meant purging black voters,
intimidation, violence, trippy laws.
(08:19):
It meant terrorizing Friedman. The KKK and similar groups ran
rampant. And it meant building the whole
system of Jim Crow. Segregation.
Disenfranchisement. Everything separate Schools,
trains, hospitals. No economic opportunity, no
political voice. White supremacy written into
law. And Hayes, his promise of peace,
his inaction, really became complicity.
(08:40):
He basically handed the South back to racial apartheid.
He surrendered the region, yeah.For the sake of order.
Which brings up that other point, this idea of order.
At any cost. He's might have thought he was
restoring order, but what kind of order was?
It it was the order of oppression.
As the Wave Insight puts it, discipline without justice is
not order, it is oppression. This wasn't real peace.
It was silence imposed by force,by terror, by stripping away
(09:03):
rights. What did that false order mean
for people living their day to? It meant the rise of these
so-called Redeemer governments, often former Confederates,
wealthy land owners determined to erase Reconstruction and put
black people back in their place.
So more violence A. Huge surge in lynchings,
Horrific public murders with 0 accountability.
(09:25):
Friedman's schools, symbols of hope and progress, were burned
down. Black leaders who'd started to
gain a foothold silenced, drivenout, sometimes killed.
And the federal government underHayes.
Just watched. Did nothing.
It was this profound shift, thistragic turn away from the
possibility of radical reform back towards conservative
control and racial terror. The union was saved, maybe, but
(09:47):
justice wasn't. Justice was sacrificed, and that
ties right into another wave insight.
When institutions create couragefor coffer, terror becomes
tradition. The comfort of a seemingly
unified nation. A return to normalcy for white
Americans was chosen over the courage needed to protect Black
lives and rights, and that decision cemented decades
generations of oppression. The long term cost, It's
(10:09):
staggering. Millions left unprotected,
Rights gone, safety gone. Reconstruction.
That idea of a second founding? Snuffed out, Hayes ended it.
And that betrayal, that broken promise, it laid the groundwork
for nearly a century of institutionalized racism.
We're still dealing with the echoes today, right?
In fights over voting riots, Racial justice.
(10:29):
Absolutely, it connects directly.
And that final wave insight for Hayes is just so sharp.
When leaders retreat from resistance, the oppressed are
left defenseless. Hayes chose not to resist the
southern demands. He retreated, and he left
millions defenseless. It was a profound moral failure.
So why does Hayes matter now? What's the take away?
It's about how fragile progress is, how easily rights can be
(10:52):
taken away, and the real danger of compromises that sacrifice
people for perceived stability. Unity without justice.
It's not real unity. It sows the seeds for future
conflict, future inequality. It's a lesson we constantly need
to relearn, I think. OK.
So from that compromise, that dismantling of justice, we moved
to Part 23 James A Garfield, a president who our sources say
(11:14):
stood right on the edge of a newmoral revival.
But his presidency was cut tragically short.
Just 200 days, an incredibly brief time in office, but his
background, his vision, it was such a stark contrast to Hayes.
He really was the self-made man,scholar, war hero.
Tell us more about him, what made him different.
Well, his journey itself is pretty amazing.
(11:36):
Born poor, Log Cabin in Ohio. Worked his way through college
as a janitor, became a professor, a union general, then
a congressman. This wasn't some elite insider.
And that shaped how he saw the presidency, not just about party
politics and handing out jobs like so many others.
He saw it as a tool for justice,for making the nation better.
He spoke out against racial discrimination.
(11:57):
He wanted to tackle the corrupt spoil system.
And he believed deeply in education for everyone.
That sounds, well, pretty radical for the time, especially
right after Hayes essentially abandoned Reconstruction.
It was, and you had this whole system based on political
favors, loyalty over competence.It was deeply corrupt, which
makes that wave insight so fitting.
(12:19):
In corrupt systems, conscience is radical.
Garfield's focus on reform and justice really stood out.
So how did he try to put that conscience into action?
Did he try to restart reconstruction?
He genuinely seemed to want to revive its spirit.
He wasn't just talking. He took action, advocated for
black civil rights, condemned the violence Hayes ignored, and
importantly, he appointed African Americans to actual
(12:41):
federal posts. Frederick Douglass as Recorder
of Deeds in DC is a key example.So signaling a real shift.
A definite signal towards inclusion, towards federal
responsibility, a direct challenge to the way things were
heading. But you know, the old guard, the
in French powers, they weren't just going to roll over.
The resistance to him was fierce.
It was organized. Which ties into that other
(13:01):
insight. When power fears change, it
strikes early and hard. Yeah.
The forces he was confronting were deeply rooted, and
tragically, that power did strike him down.
His assassination directly linked to this fight against
corruption. Right directly.
His defiance of the spoil system, his refusal to just hand
out jobs based on loyalty, That's what led to it.
(13:24):
Charles Gateau, the assassin, was a disgruntled office seeker.
He felt entitled to a governmentpost because he thought he'd
helped Garfield get elected. He thought loyalty should be
rewarded with a job regardless of merit.
Exactly. Gateau's twisted logic was a
product of the spoils system. He literally said he shot
Garfield to help the party faction that supported the
spoils system. It perfectly illustrates that
(13:46):
other wave point movements builton loyalty demand obedience, not
justice. And Garfield didn't die
immediately. No, He suffered for 79 days.
Poor medical care, infection. It was agonizing.
He became this martyr for reformbefore he'd really even had a
chance to implement his vision. It was just, yeah, extinguished.
Such a loss. What was the impact of his
death? Did it spark reform?
(14:07):
It caused this huge national trauma, real shock and mourning.
And for a moment, yes, reformersrallied.
They hoped his sacrifice would finally force change.
But they kind of fizzled out. The old systems held on.
They did. His successor, Chester Arthur,
surprisingly carry forward some civil service reform, which
we'll get to. But that moral fire?
(14:27):
Garfield seemed poised to ignitethat chance for a real second
Reconstruction, A deeper moral awakening.
It didn't happen. It got snuffed out.
It really shows how an authoritarian currents awakening
is dangerous. Garfield's vision threatened the
status quo too much. It did.
What he leaves us with is this glimpse, this tantalizing hint
of what might have been a more just maybe more educated, more
(14:50):
inclusive America. His short presidency is a
warning about corruption, about compliance, but also maybe a
reminder of what principal leadership can aspire to, even
if it's cut short. It really sets the stage for his
successor. Then part 24 brings us to
Chester A Arthur. Talk about unexpected the
accidental reformer. Yeah, if ever there was an
unlikely reformer, it was Arthur.
(15:12):
He was the absolute embodiment of the machine politics. 6
Garfield fart against. How so?
What was his background? He was known as the gentleman
boss of the powerful New York Republican machine.
His big job before VP was Collector of the Port of New
York. Hugely influential, tons of
patronage jobs to hand out. So he was a master of the spoil
system. Absolutely.
(15:33):
Loyalty was to the party machineto powerful bosses like Roscoe
Conkling, not really to ideals of good government.
The New York Customs house underhim was notorious for being
bloated. Did Inefficient Corrupt make a
prime example of what needed fixing?
So when Garfield died and Arthurbecame president, people must
have been pretty worried. Worried is an understatement.
(15:55):
Skeptical. Apprehensive.
They thought here comes the ultimate spoilsman.
It felt like a huge step backward.
But then something changed. It's like that wave insight.
Sometimes the system elevates aninsider only to find he has a
conscience. Exactly.
It's one of the most surprising turnarounds.
Arthur, the guy who benefited hugely from the system, ends up
being the one to start dismantling it.
(16:16):
What prompted it? The shock of Garfield's
assassination. That was definitely part of it.
The national outcry, Garfield becoming a martyr for reform,
put immense pressure on Arthur. But sources also suggest maybe a
sense of duty, the weight of theoffice itself, maybe a desire to
leave a better legacy than just being a machine politician.
So what did he actually do? He shocked everyone by
(16:38):
championing civil service reform.
He signed the Pendleton Act in 1883.
Landmark legislation. It created a merit system for
federal jobs, competitive exams,qualifications, not just who you
knew. A direct attack on the system
that made. Direct attack.
He did it knowing his old ally, the stalwarts would be furious.
(16:59):
They saw it as betrayal, but he pushed it through.
It was the beginning of the end for the pure spoil system.
That's really something that fits that other wave idea too.
In authoritarian structures, true reform often comes from
those with nothing left to lose.Maybe knowing he wasn't long for
the world or just feeling the moral weight.
Possibly he also had health issues he kept private.
(17:20):
Bright's disease, a kidney ailment.
He knew his time was likely limited.
Perhaps that freedom up and beyond civil service.
He also made some quiet moves oncivil rights.
Really. After Hayes and the end of
Reconstruction. Yeah, subtle moves, but
significant given the context. He supported federal aid for
education, especially pushing for black students in the South.
(17:41):
Though the bills failed, he backed funding for some
remaining Reconstruction Era protections.
He even vetoed A harsh version of the Chinese Exclusion Act
trying to push back against antiimmigrant sentiment, though
Congress overrode him on that one and he called for more just
treatment of Native Americans. So not huge strides, but pushing
against the tide. Exactly.
(18:02):
In a time when things were rapidly moving backward on race
and rights, these were small butreal acts of defiance.
It underlines that point. And as society slipping
backward, even small steps forward are acts of defiance.
His efforts were often overshadowed, drowned out, but
they were there. And he?
Didn't cling to power. No, he served out Garfield's
term with this quiet dignity. Didn't really seek re election
(18:24):
actively. Partly due to his illness and
famously, he burned most of his personal papers before leaving
office. Didn't want the fanfare maybe?
A truly unexpected legacy. It really is.
He reminds us that even in corrupt systems, people can
surprise you. The machine boss became a
reformer. It complicates the narrative,
shows reform can come from unlikely places.
(18:47):
He left behind the Pendleton Actand these quiet nudges towards
civil rights. So Arthur shows reform can
emerge from within, even from someone deeply tied to the the
old system. A fascinating contrast to what
comes next. Part 25 Grover Cleveland 2 Non
consecutive terms marking A conservative resurgence.
Right Cleveland represents the return of the Bourbon Democrats.
(19:08):
That faction focused on businessinterests, limited government
and frankly, upholding white supremacy.
But he had this reputation for honesty, right?
Fighting corruption? He did.
He built his career on being theveto governor, fighting wasteful
spending in New York, taking on Tammany Hall, and as president
he continued that fighting pork barrel spending, pushing some
limited civil service reforms. People saw him as Mr. Integrity.
(19:32):
But the sources say his vision of reform was narrow.
Incredibly narrow. For Cleveland, reform meant
fiscal prudence. Cutting spending limited
government. It did not mean tackling social
injustice or economic inequality.
He opposed labor protections, blocked pensions for veterans,
even vetoed aid for drought stricken farmers.
All on principle for reality over equity every.
(19:54):
Time so clean government, maybe,but not necessarily just
government. Precisely.
It fits that wave insight perfectly.
Not all reform is resistance. Some reforms restore unjust
order. His kind of reform reinforced
the existing hierarchies, protected the powerful even
while looking clean on the surface.
And how did this play out regarding race?
It was devastating. While he wasn't maybe overtly
(20:16):
championing Jim Crow, he did absolutely nothing to stop its
spread. Lynchings exploded during his
terms. Segregation laws tighten in
their grip. Cleveland just looked the other
way. Deliberate inaction.
Completely deliberate, He opposed federal efforts to
protect black voting rights, dismantled any remaining civil
rights enforcement. His silence, his inaction,
(20:37):
basically gave a green light to the Southern Redeemers to
consolidate white power and terrorize Black communities.
Federal government wasn't going to step in.
That's that chilling inside again.
Silence in the face of injusticeis complicity.
His silence had deadly consequences.
Undeniably, he lost in 1888, butthen came back in 1892 right
into the Panic of 1893, a massive economic depression.
(20:59):
How did he handle that? By siding firmly with capital,
he used federal troops to violently crush the Pullman
strike. A huge National Railway strike
send a clear message labor rights were secondary to
corporate interests. He repealed silver coinage laws,
which hurt farmers and debtors. Despite his honest image, his
policies favored Wall Street anddeepened the suffering from many
(21:20):
ordinary Americans. So the image didn't match the
reality for many. Not at all.
It undersores that point. A just image can shield unjust
systems. His reputation for integrity
mask a profound indifference to the plight of the poor workers
and black citizens. His presidency seemed like the
end of an era, almost classical liberalism's last stand before
(21:41):
populism and progressivism. Yeah, he represented that older
view, limited government above all.
But his refusal to adapt, to usegovernment to address growing
inequality and injustice, actually enabled those problems
to get worse. It's like that final insight for
him. When reform resists the future,
it becomes reaction. His rigid principles became
(22:02):
obstacles to progress. Exactly.
By resisting government activism, he effectively allied
himself with the forces pushing back against equality and
economic justice. His legacy is really one of the
government that protected the powerful, ignore the suffering
and allowed racial terror to flourish under the guise of
sound principle. A sobering reminder of how
principled in action can be deeply destructive.
(22:23):
Yeah. OK, let's shift gears to Part
26. Benjamin Harrison sandwiched
between Cleveland's terms and offering what our sources call
the forgotten civil rights revival.
Yeah, Harrison is often overlooked, but his single term
represents this brief, intense pushback against the Tide
Cleveland representative, a final attempt, really, to uphold
(22:44):
the ideals of Reconstruction. What drove him?
Why was he different? He was a union veteran, carried
that experience with him. He genuinely seemed to believe
in a multiracial democracy, which was becoming a rarer
stance among Republicans by then.
And he acted on it, appointed black leaders, forcefully spoke
out against lynching unlike Cleveland, and actively pushed
for federal protection of votingrights in the South.
(23:05):
Trying to relight that fire. Absolutely.
It feels like that wave insight,resistance to injustice often
reappears as a final gasp beforeretreat.
He was making a stand when most others were giving up.
What? Was his main effort on this
front. The big one was the Federal
Elections Bill of 1890, the Lodge Bill.
This was ambitious. It aimed to empower federal
(23:26):
supervisors to oversee electionsin the South to directly counter
the poll taxes, literacy tests and intimidation that were
disenfranchising Black voters. A direct challenge to Jim Crow.
A head on challenge, Yeah. Trying to bring back federal
protection for the vote. And it passed the House, which
is something, but not the Senate.
Correct. Passed the House but died in the
(23:47):
Senate. Filibustered relentlessly by
Southern Democrats, obviously. But the real kicker?
It was abandoned by moderate Republicans.
Why? Why would they abandon?
It fear. Fear of losing political power,
fear of alienating white voters,pressure from business interests
who wanted stability over justice.
It's that painful truth again. When the powerful fear losing
privilege, even justice becomes expendable.
(24:09):
Party loyalty and white solidarity won out over moral
courage. The bill died.
And with it, maybe the last realchance for federal intervention
for decades. So pretty.
Much It was huge blow. But like all these presidencies,
Harrison's had contradictions too, right?
Right. While fighting for civil rights,
he also oversaw expansionism, corporate growth.
(24:30):
Signed the Sherman Antitrust Act, but it wasn't strongly
enforced yet. Supported high tariffs.
And then there's the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, a
horrific event under his administration where U.S. troops
killed hundreds of Lakota Sioux,a stark contrast to his efforts
for black civil rights. It highlights that complexity.
Even reformers carry contradictions.
(24:52):
Resistance must confront them all.
Progress isn't always neater consistent.
Definitely not. So this forgotten fire Harrison
tried to light. It went out.
Yeah, our sources stressed that his vision for protecting black
civil rights wouldn't be seriously taken up again at the
federal level until the 1950s sixty years, leaving black
Americans largely unprotected during that long period.
(25:13):
His effort failed ultimately because truth without a movement
cannot hold back the tide. He didn't have the broad,
sustained political backing needed.
Still, his stand mattered, didn't it, even in failure.
Absolutely. It marked those fault lines.
It showed a resistance was possible, even if overwhelmed.
Like the wave says, a single wave may not shift the sea, but
it can mark the fault lines of resistance.
(25:35):
He provided a model, a symbol proving you could swim against
that current even if you didn't change his direction
immediately. A crucial, if tragic story,
which brings us to the last president in this section.
Part 27. William McKinley, The Corporate
Republic. Yeah, Mckinley's presidency from
1897 until his assassination in 19 O1 really cemented the
dominance of big business, saw America become a global empire,
(25:59):
and consolidated elite power. His election in 1896 was a
watershed moment. He beat the populist William
Jennings Bryan with massive funding from industrialists run
by Mark Hanna, who basically invented modern campaign
fundraising and media strategy. So business interest got him
elected. Overwhelmingly, and once in
office, his administration absolutely aligned government
(26:19):
with big business. High tariffs protected industry,
trusts and monopolies grew with very little check, and the
government's stance towards labor became even harsher.
It felt like the Gilded Age fully matured, where profit was
the ultimate goal. That really hits on that wave
insight. In authoritarian systems, profit
becomes morality. The bottom line trumped
(26:40):
everything else. It certainly seems that way, and
this extended beyond domestic policy into foreign affairs in a
huge way. Spanish American War.
Exactly Sold as liberation for Cuba, fueled by sensationalist
newspapers, but the result? Cuba became nominally
independent but heavily influenced by the US and
America, annexed the Philippines, Puerto Rico and
Guam and overseas empire. So liberation turned into
(27:02):
occupation. Pretty much.
McKinley talked about benevolentassimilation but ended up
fighting a brutal war to crush the Filipino independence
movement led by Emilio Aguinaldo.
It's a stark example of expansion cloaked in noble words
often hides imperial intent. The rhetoric didn't match the
reality of conquest. And back home, this corporate
dominance meant. Crushing dissent, especially
(27:23):
from labor strikes, were often met with violence.
Federal troops deployed to protect company property over
workers rights. Corporate lobbyists had a huge
sway. And McKinley himself?
He was notably silent on the bigissues of the day affecting
ordinary people. Like racial violence?
Yeah, inequality. Yeah, silent on lynching, silent
on rising anti immigrant feelings, silent on the growing
(27:45):
gap between the rich and poor. His focus seemed to be
consolidation of corporate power, of political order.
Justice wasn't the priority. Which leads back to that idea
that authoritarianism grows whensilence Shields the powerful.
His silence allowed these forcesto strengthen.
It created a permissive environment and his presidency
ended violently too. Assassinated in 19 O1 by Leon
(28:06):
Cholgos, an anarchist who is reacting against exactly this
system, against empire, against corporate power, against
inequality. A reflection of the anger
simmering beneath the surface. Definitely.
While Cholgos's act was condemned, his motive spoke to
real grievances. Mckinley's death then brought
Theodore Roosevelt to power, kicking off the Progressive Era
and attempt to respond to some of these problems.
(28:28):
But crucially, that only happened after this corporate
imperial model had taken in deeproot.
It's like that final insight. Resistance may come from the
margins, but it speaks for the silenced.
So McKinley, this calm figure presided over this huge shift
towards a corporate empire. His legacy?
Modern campaigning funded by bigmoney and overseas empire profit
(28:49):
driven policy. Yeah, and a reminder that
sometimes the biggest changes, the most dangerous shifts,
happen quietly, under a surface of calm, through compromise and
indifference. Wow.
OK, so stepping back from these 6 presidents, what's the big
take away? We've seen principles upheld,
abandoned resistance flare up and fade, power consolidate.
What does it all mean for us now?
I think the key thing is realizing these aren't just old
(29:11):
stories. The dynamics we've talked about,
that tension between order and justice, the way rights can be
slowly eroded, how economic power translates into political
power, how silence enables oppression.
These are timeless. They're still playing out.
So understanding Hayes's compromise or Garfield's
attempted awakening, or Cleveland's principled in
(29:34):
action, it gives us tools to seewhat's happening today.
Exactly. The wave insights are like
lenses. They help us recognize these
patterns when they reappear. Maybe in different forms, but
the underlying forces are often the same, recognizing them as
the first step towards challenging them, towards
actually shaping the future we want instead of just letting
things drift. And that's really the goal of
(29:55):
this series, the truth and mythology of America's
presidents, to provide those historical lenses to, you know,
educate resistance. We really hope you'll take these
insights and discuss them. Talk about them with friends,
family, online. Keep the conversation going.
Because these aren't just academic points, they have real
world relevance. Definitely, and if you want to
dig deeper, you can find more audio analysis on the Educate
(30:17):
the Resistance Spotify channels.We've got Vosis de la Vardad for
Spanish speakers and OCCDLU for Arabic speakers too.
That's great. You can also join the
conversation on Blue Ski. We're at
boski.aprofile.educateresistance.b.ski.socialandcheckoutthefreeciviceducationportal@github.comfor sets free civis education.
(30:37):
Lots of resources there, yeah. And look, if you found this deep
dive useful, please do like it, share it, subscribe.
It really helps us get these lessons out to more people.
We're aiming for a million subscribers to really broaden
this educational effort. Which brings us to a final
thought, maybe a question for everyone listening.
These stories, particularly Mckinley's, remind us that often
(30:58):
the most dangerous changes don'thappen with a bang.
They creep in quietly, through small compromises, through
looking the other way, through power shifting subtly.
So the question is, what small, informed actions can you take?
What conversations can you startright where you are in your
community, at work, online, to make sure we're learning from
history that the arc of justice keeps bending forward, even if
(31:20):
it's just a little bit at a time.
We've seen the tide turn before,from liberty to fear, from truth
to control. But this is not the end.
This is our call to stand, to rise, to rebuild.
Because democracy is not a gift,it's a choice.
Every day child's cast by tyrant's hand.
Where truth was drowned beneath the sand, We heard the cry from
(31:42):
far and wide. A.
Silent scream the stars. Can't hide from Epstein's dark,
unsealed decay to bucket laws that strip away the mask has
slipped the right exposed the halls of power now.
Deposed. But through the noise, a spark
remained. A voice not bought, not.
Bent Unchained, a cannon tape not.
Born from gold, but. Fire, just as stories tore from.
(32:04):
The ashes we rise like the dawn breaking lies with the wave as
our guide we reclaim what survived, not just for one, but
for all. We the people here, the culture
of the world, we unite, but we born in the light.
Before cries ringing out afar toblood red lines in Kandahar,
(32:27):
authoritarians fed the flame, but millions rose and spoke our
name. The firewall built from every.
Voice Survivors. Made the noblest choice to
leave, to speak, to build a new a global dream long overdue.
The truth they feared. We now declare the world's not
theirs, we all. Must care from cave to Flint
from. Gaza shore no whelms peace
(32:50):
anymore. From the ashes we rise.
It's like the dawn. Breaking lies with the.
Wave there's our guide. We reclaim and survive not just
for one life for all We the people here, the car to the
wall, we unite or we born in thelight and.
(33:20):
About left to right. It's about right and wrong.
The wave taught us how it happened slowly, subtly, than
all at once. But we've learned, we've seen,
and we've chosen. Never again.
From the ashes we rise no more hearts, for more lies.
With the will in our stride we unite the world wide tide, a new
(33:42):
leader. Fortune, flame.
Not for power, for the name of every voice that dares to find
Gobri born in the light. We are the wave.
And this time? We choose the light.
(34:13):
We are the wave, and this time we choose the light.
(34:56):
We've learned, we've seen, and we've chosen ever again.
From the ashes we arise. No more hate.
No more lies with the wave. Taught us how it.
Happens slowly, subtly, than allat once.
But we've learned, we've seen, and we've chosen.
(35:17):
Never again.
We've seen the tide turn before,from liberty to fear, from truth
to control. But this is not the end.
This is our call to stand the rise.
To rebuild, because democracy. Is not a gift, it's a choice.
Every day, in child's gas by tyrant's hand, where truth was
drowned beneath the sand We heard the cry from far and wide,
(00:21):
a silent scream. The stars get high from
Epstein's dark unsealed decay tobump it.
Laws that strip away the mask has slipped, the right exposed.
The halls of power now deposed, but through.
The noise, A spark remained a voice not bought, not.
Bent, Unchained, a Cam and date not borne from gold but fire
Justice stories to run. The ashes we rise like the dawn
(00:45):
breaking lies with the wave as our guide we reclaim what
survived, not just for one, but for all.
We the people here, the culture of the wall, we unite, but we
born in the light. From 4 cries ringing out afar to
blood red lines in Kandahar. Authoritarians fed the flame,
(01:08):
but millions rose and spoke our name.
The firewall built from every voice.
Survivors made the noblest choice to lead, to speak, to
build a new. A global dream long overdue.
The truth they feared. We now declare the world's not
theirs. We all must.
Care from cave to Flint. From Gaza shore no realms peace
(01:28):
anymore. From the ashes we rise.
It's like the dawn. Breaking lies with the.
Wave there's our guide we reclaim what survive not just
for one life for all we the people here, the call to the
wall, we unite or we born in thelight and.
(01:58):
About left to right. It's about right and wrong.
The wave taught us how it happened, slowly, subtly, and
all at once. But we've learned, we've seen,
and we've chosen. Never again.
From the ashes we rise no more heart, for more lies With the
weather within our stride we unite the world wide tie a new
(02:21):
leader, Fortune Flay. Not for power, for the name of
every voice that dares to fight Gobri.
Born in the light. We have a fire.
We are the wave. And this time?
We choose the light. We are the wave, and this time
(02:55):
we choose the light. We've learned, we've seen, and
(03:37):
we've chosen. Never again.
From the ashes we arise. No more hate.
No more lies with the wave. Taught us.
How it happens slowly, subtly, than all at once.
But we've learned, we've seen, and we've.
Chosen never again. Welcome to the Deep Dive.
(04:01):
We sift through stacks of sources, articles, research, you
name it to pull out the key. Insights give you that shortcut
to really understanding complex topics.
Yeah, making sense of it all. Exactly.
And today we're taking a fascinating kind of analytical
journey through the Truth and Mythology of America's President
series, specifically looking at parts 22 through 27.
(04:23):
Our mission here is to figure out how these big decisions, you
know, ones based on principle and the ones born from
compromise, really shaped American democracy.
And often with these huge, long lasting effects on justice, on
equality, it's striking. Totally.
And we'll be looking at how these historical stories,
especially when you view them through the lens of the wave,
(04:43):
give us these crucial clues about power, about resistance.
And about how those authoritarian undercurrents can
sort of creep in or how people push back against them.
Right. So why these specific precedents
this particular era? Well.
What's really fascinating, I think, is how these presidencies
from the late 19th century, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur,
(05:03):
Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley, they seem kind of separate,
maybe a bit forgotten between the Civil War and the
Progressive Era. Yeah, overshadowed a bit.
Exactly. Yeah, but they actually connect
to these much bigger, you know, timeless patterns, societal
control, how the public goes along with things, that constant
struggle for basic rights. This.
Is not just a history lesson. Not at all.
(05:25):
We're not just listing dates andnames.
We want to get into why it mattered back then for the
people living through it, and frankly, why it might still
matter a lot to you today because these dynamics, they
haven't gone away. That really raises a big
question then, doesn't it? How do nations handle these
moments, these huge moral choices?
And what's the real cost? You know the hidden cost when
you trade principles for what looks like order or just
(05:48):
political convenience. OK, let's definitely unpack
that. Let's start with Part 22.
Rutherford B Hayes, a president who came into office through
what was famously known as the Great Compromise of 1877.
Infamous maybe? Right, infamous might be better.
Our sources are pretty clear. This deal basically silenced the
hopes of millions. It traded A disputed election
(06:12):
for. Well, for stability, but at what
cost? The cost was justice.
Hayes promised peace reconciliation after the war,
but the way he achieved it directly brutally undermined
racial equality and any democratic progress in the
South. It feels like a textbook example
of power winning out over principle.
Absolutely. And to really get the weight of
(06:32):
this, you need to picture the chaos of the 1876 election.
It was, well, it was a mess. The popular vote was razor thin,
but the Electoral College disputed results in Florida,
Louisiana, South Carolina, crucially states where federal
troops were still present as part of Reconstruction.
So both sides claimed victory. Exactly.
Republican Hayes and Democrat Tilden both said they'd won.
(06:54):
It created this unprecedented constitutional crisis.
People were genuinely worried about another civil war, just,
you know, a decade after the last.
One Wow. So how did they fix it?
Not through the courts. No, not really.
Through any open legal process, it came down to these closed
door meetings, these backroom deals, the compromise of 1877.
And the deal was? Democrats basically said OK,
(07:15):
Hayes can be president, but the price the non negotiable demand.
All remaining federal troops hadto be pulled out of the South
immediately. A direct concession to Southern
white political leaders. Completely.
And Hayes, who you know, had made some noises about
supporting black civil rights before he went along with it.
He accepted the deal. And our sources say this
(07:36):
effectively killed reconstruction.
It did not through law, not through debate, but through this
murky political trade. It's exactly what that wave
insight warns about. When deals are made in darkness,
democracy dies in silence. That's chilling.
So the foundation for a more equal S just crumbled.
Quietly dismantled. Not a big explosion, more like a
slow suffocation. And the consequences for black
(07:58):
Americans, you said they were immediate.
Immediate and brutal, those federal troops, They were the
last real protection against white supremacist violence.
Once they were gone, boom, Southern states move incredibly
fast to reverse all the gains ofreconstruction.
Wow, what did that look like? It meant purging black voters,
intimidation, violence, trippy laws.
(08:19):
It meant terrorizing Friedman. The KKK and similar groups ran
rampant. And it meant building the whole
system of Jim Crow. Segregation.
Disenfranchisement. Everything separate Schools,
trains, hospitals. No economic opportunity, no
political voice. White supremacy written into
law. And Hayes, his promise of peace,
his inaction, really became complicity.
(08:40):
He basically handed the South back to racial apartheid.
He surrendered the region, yeah.For the sake of order.
Which brings up that other point, this idea of order.
At any cost. He's might have thought he was
restoring order, but what kind of order was?
It it was the order of oppression.
As the Wave Insight puts it, discipline without justice is
not order, it is oppression. This wasn't real peace.
It was silence imposed by force,by terror, by stripping away
(09:03):
rights. What did that false order mean
for people living their day to? It meant the rise of these
so-called Redeemer governments, often former Confederates,
wealthy land owners determined to erase Reconstruction and put
black people back in their place.
So more violence A. Huge surge in lynchings,
Horrific public murders with 0 accountability.
(09:25):
Friedman's schools, symbols of hope and progress, were burned
down. Black leaders who'd started to
gain a foothold silenced, drivenout, sometimes killed.
And the federal government underHayes.
Just watched. Did nothing.
It was this profound shift, thistragic turn away from the
possibility of radical reform back towards conservative
control and racial terror. The union was saved, maybe, but
(09:47):
justice wasn't. Justice was sacrificed, and that
ties right into another wave insight.
When institutions create couragefor coffer, terror becomes
tradition. The comfort of a seemingly
unified nation. A return to normalcy for white
Americans was chosen over the courage needed to protect Black
lives and rights, and that decision cemented decades
generations of oppression. The long term cost, It's
(10:09):
staggering. Millions left unprotected,
Rights gone, safety gone. Reconstruction.
That idea of a second founding? Snuffed out, Hayes ended it.
And that betrayal, that broken promise, it laid the groundwork
for nearly a century of institutionalized racism.
We're still dealing with the echoes today, right?
In fights over voting riots, Racial justice.
(10:29):
Absolutely, it connects directly.
And that final wave insight for Hayes is just so sharp.
When leaders retreat from resistance, the oppressed are
left defenseless. Hayes chose not to resist the
southern demands. He retreated, and he left
millions defenseless. It was a profound moral failure.
So why does Hayes matter now? What's the take away?
It's about how fragile progress is, how easily rights can be
(10:52):
taken away, and the real danger of compromises that sacrifice
people for perceived stability. Unity without justice.
It's not real unity. It sows the seeds for future
conflict, future inequality. It's a lesson we constantly need
to relearn, I think. OK.
So from that compromise, that dismantling of justice, we moved
to Part 23 James A Garfield, a president who our sources say
(11:14):
stood right on the edge of a newmoral revival.
But his presidency was cut tragically short.
Just 200 days, an incredibly brief time in office, but his
background, his vision, it was such a stark contrast to Hayes.
He really was the self-made man,scholar, war hero.
Tell us more about him, what made him different.
Well, his journey itself is pretty amazing.
(11:36):
Born poor, Log Cabin in Ohio. Worked his way through college
as a janitor, became a professor, a union general, then
a congressman. This wasn't some elite insider.
And that shaped how he saw the presidency, not just about party
politics and handing out jobs like so many others.
He saw it as a tool for justice,for making the nation better.
He spoke out against racial discrimination.
(11:57):
He wanted to tackle the corrupt spoil system.
And he believed deeply in education for everyone.
That sounds, well, pretty radical for the time, especially
right after Hayes essentially abandoned Reconstruction.
It was, and you had this whole system based on political
favors, loyalty over competence.It was deeply corrupt, which
makes that wave insight so fitting.
(12:19):
In corrupt systems, conscience is radical.
Garfield's focus on reform and justice really stood out.
So how did he try to put that conscience into action?
Did he try to restart reconstruction?
He genuinely seemed to want to revive its spirit.
He wasn't just talking. He took action, advocated for
black civil rights, condemned the violence Hayes ignored, and
importantly, he appointed African Americans to actual
(12:41):
federal posts. Frederick Douglass as Recorder
of Deeds in DC is a key example.So signaling a real shift.
A definite signal towards inclusion, towards federal
responsibility, a direct challenge to the way things were
heading. But you know, the old guard, the
in French powers, they weren't just going to roll over.
The resistance to him was fierce.
It was organized. Which ties into that other
(13:01):
insight. When power fears change, it
strikes early and hard. Yeah.
The forces he was confronting were deeply rooted, and
tragically, that power did strike him down.
His assassination directly linked to this fight against
corruption. Right directly.
His defiance of the spoil system, his refusal to just hand
out jobs based on loyalty, That's what led to it.
(13:24):
Charles Gateau, the assassin, was a disgruntled office seeker.
He felt entitled to a governmentpost because he thought he'd
helped Garfield get elected. He thought loyalty should be
rewarded with a job regardless of merit.
Exactly. Gateau's twisted logic was a
product of the spoils system. He literally said he shot
Garfield to help the party faction that supported the
spoils system. It perfectly illustrates that
(13:46):
other wave point movements builton loyalty demand obedience, not
justice. And Garfield didn't die
immediately. No, He suffered for 79 days.
Poor medical care, infection. It was agonizing.
He became this martyr for reformbefore he'd really even had a
chance to implement his vision. It was just, yeah, extinguished.
Such a loss. What was the impact of his
death? Did it spark reform?
(14:07):
It caused this huge national trauma, real shock and mourning.
And for a moment, yes, reformersrallied.
They hoped his sacrifice would finally force change.
But they kind of fizzled out. The old systems held on.
They did. His successor, Chester Arthur,
surprisingly carry forward some civil service reform, which
we'll get to. But that moral fire?
(14:27):
Garfield seemed poised to ignitethat chance for a real second
Reconstruction, A deeper moral awakening.
It didn't happen. It got snuffed out.
It really shows how an authoritarian currents awakening
is dangerous. Garfield's vision threatened the
status quo too much. It did.
What he leaves us with is this glimpse, this tantalizing hint
of what might have been a more just maybe more educated, more
(14:50):
inclusive America. His short presidency is a
warning about corruption, about compliance, but also maybe a
reminder of what principal leadership can aspire to, even
if it's cut short. It really sets the stage for his
successor. Then part 24 brings us to
Chester A Arthur. Talk about unexpected the
accidental reformer. Yeah, if ever there was an
unlikely reformer, it was Arthur.
(15:12):
He was the absolute embodiment of the machine politics. 6
Garfield fart against. How so?
What was his background? He was known as the gentleman
boss of the powerful New York Republican machine.
His big job before VP was Collector of the Port of New
York. Hugely influential, tons of
patronage jobs to hand out. So he was a master of the spoil
system. Absolutely.
(15:33):
Loyalty was to the party machineto powerful bosses like Roscoe
Conkling, not really to ideals of good government.
The New York Customs house underhim was notorious for being
bloated. Did Inefficient Corrupt make a
prime example of what needed fixing?
So when Garfield died and Arthurbecame president, people must
have been pretty worried. Worried is an understatement.
(15:55):
Skeptical. Apprehensive.
They thought here comes the ultimate spoilsman.
It felt like a huge step backward.
But then something changed. It's like that wave insight.
Sometimes the system elevates aninsider only to find he has a
conscience. Exactly.
It's one of the most surprising turnarounds.
Arthur, the guy who benefited hugely from the system, ends up
being the one to start dismantling it.
(16:16):
What prompted it? The shock of Garfield's
assassination. That was definitely part of it.
The national outcry, Garfield becoming a martyr for reform,
put immense pressure on Arthur. But sources also suggest maybe a
sense of duty, the weight of theoffice itself, maybe a desire to
leave a better legacy than just being a machine politician.
So what did he actually do? He shocked everyone by
(16:38):
championing civil service reform.
He signed the Pendleton Act in 1883.
Landmark legislation. It created a merit system for
federal jobs, competitive exams,qualifications, not just who you
knew. A direct attack on the system
that made. Direct attack.
He did it knowing his old ally, the stalwarts would be furious.
(16:59):
They saw it as betrayal, but he pushed it through.
It was the beginning of the end for the pure spoil system.
That's really something that fits that other wave idea too.
In authoritarian structures, true reform often comes from
those with nothing left to lose.Maybe knowing he wasn't long for
the world or just feeling the moral weight.
Possibly he also had health issues he kept private.
(17:20):
Bright's disease, a kidney ailment.
He knew his time was likely limited.
Perhaps that freedom up and beyond civil service.
He also made some quiet moves oncivil rights.
Really. After Hayes and the end of
Reconstruction. Yeah, subtle moves, but
significant given the context. He supported federal aid for
education, especially pushing for black students in the South.
(17:41):
Though the bills failed, he backed funding for some
remaining Reconstruction Era protections.
He even vetoed A harsh version of the Chinese Exclusion Act
trying to push back against antiimmigrant sentiment, though
Congress overrode him on that one and he called for more just
treatment of Native Americans. So not huge strides, but pushing
against the tide. Exactly.
(18:02):
In a time when things were rapidly moving backward on race
and rights, these were small butreal acts of defiance.
It underlines that point. And as society slipping
backward, even small steps forward are acts of defiance.
His efforts were often overshadowed, drowned out, but
they were there. And he?
Didn't cling to power. No, he served out Garfield's
term with this quiet dignity. Didn't really seek re election
(18:24):
actively. Partly due to his illness and
famously, he burned most of his personal papers before leaving
office. Didn't want the fanfare maybe?
A truly unexpected legacy. It really is.
He reminds us that even in corrupt systems, people can
surprise you. The machine boss became a
reformer. It complicates the narrative,
shows reform can come from unlikely places.
(18:47):
He left behind the Pendleton Actand these quiet nudges towards
civil rights. So Arthur shows reform can
emerge from within, even from someone deeply tied to the the
old system. A fascinating contrast to what
comes next. Part 25 Grover Cleveland 2 Non
consecutive terms marking A conservative resurgence.
Right Cleveland represents the return of the Bourbon Democrats.
(19:08):
That faction focused on businessinterests, limited government
and frankly, upholding white supremacy.
But he had this reputation for honesty, right?
Fighting corruption? He did.
He built his career on being theveto governor, fighting wasteful
spending in New York, taking on Tammany Hall, and as president
he continued that fighting pork barrel spending, pushing some
limited civil service reforms. People saw him as Mr. Integrity.
(19:32):
But the sources say his vision of reform was narrow.
Incredibly narrow. For Cleveland, reform meant
fiscal prudence. Cutting spending limited
government. It did not mean tackling social
injustice or economic inequality.
He opposed labor protections, blocked pensions for veterans,
even vetoed aid for drought stricken farmers.
All on principle for reality over equity every.
(19:54):
Time so clean government, maybe,but not necessarily just
government. Precisely.
It fits that wave insight perfectly.
Not all reform is resistance. Some reforms restore unjust
order. His kind of reform reinforced
the existing hierarchies, protected the powerful even
while looking clean on the surface.
And how did this play out regarding race?
It was devastating. While he wasn't maybe overtly
(20:16):
championing Jim Crow, he did absolutely nothing to stop its
spread. Lynchings exploded during his
terms. Segregation laws tighten in
their grip. Cleveland just looked the other
way. Deliberate inaction.
Completely deliberate, He opposed federal efforts to
protect black voting rights, dismantled any remaining civil
rights enforcement. His silence, his inaction,
(20:37):
basically gave a green light to the Southern Redeemers to
consolidate white power and terrorize Black communities.
Federal government wasn't going to step in.
That's that chilling inside again.
Silence in the face of injusticeis complicity.
His silence had deadly consequences.
Undeniably, he lost in 1888, butthen came back in 1892 right
into the Panic of 1893, a massive economic depression.
(20:59):
How did he handle that? By siding firmly with capital,
he used federal troops to violently crush the Pullman
strike. A huge National Railway strike
send a clear message labor rights were secondary to
corporate interests. He repealed silver coinage laws,
which hurt farmers and debtors. Despite his honest image, his
policies favored Wall Street anddeepened the suffering from many
(21:20):
ordinary Americans. So the image didn't match the
reality for many. Not at all.
It undersores that point. A just image can shield unjust
systems. His reputation for integrity
mask a profound indifference to the plight of the poor workers
and black citizens. His presidency seemed like the
end of an era, almost classical liberalism's last stand before
(21:41):
populism and progressivism. Yeah, he represented that older
view, limited government above all.
But his refusal to adapt, to usegovernment to address growing
inequality and injustice, actually enabled those problems
to get worse. It's like that final insight for
him. When reform resists the future,
it becomes reaction. His rigid principles became
(22:02):
obstacles to progress. Exactly.
By resisting government activism, he effectively allied
himself with the forces pushing back against equality and
economic justice. His legacy is really one of the
government that protected the powerful, ignore the suffering
and allowed racial terror to flourish under the guise of
sound principle. A sobering reminder of how
principled in action can be deeply destructive.
(22:23):
Yeah. OK, let's shift gears to Part
26. Benjamin Harrison sandwiched
between Cleveland's terms and offering what our sources call
the forgotten civil rights revival.
Yeah, Harrison is often overlooked, but his single term
represents this brief, intense pushback against the Tide
Cleveland representative, a final attempt, really, to uphold
(22:44):
the ideals of Reconstruction. What drove him?
Why was he different? He was a union veteran, carried
that experience with him. He genuinely seemed to believe
in a multiracial democracy, which was becoming a rarer
stance among Republicans by then.
And he acted on it, appointed black leaders, forcefully spoke
out against lynching unlike Cleveland, and actively pushed
for federal protection of votingrights in the South.
(23:05):
Trying to relight that fire. Absolutely.
It feels like that wave insight,resistance to injustice often
reappears as a final gasp beforeretreat.
He was making a stand when most others were giving up.
What? Was his main effort on this
front. The big one was the Federal
Elections Bill of 1890, the Lodge Bill.
This was ambitious. It aimed to empower federal
(23:26):
supervisors to oversee electionsin the South to directly counter
the poll taxes, literacy tests and intimidation that were
disenfranchising Black voters. A direct challenge to Jim Crow.
A head on challenge, Yeah. Trying to bring back federal
protection for the vote. And it passed the House, which
is something, but not the Senate.
Correct. Passed the House but died in the
(23:47):
Senate. Filibustered relentlessly by
Southern Democrats, obviously. But the real kicker?
It was abandoned by moderate Republicans.
Why? Why would they abandon?
It fear. Fear of losing political power,
fear of alienating white voters,pressure from business interests
who wanted stability over justice.
It's that painful truth again. When the powerful fear losing
privilege, even justice becomes expendable.
(24:09):
Party loyalty and white solidarity won out over moral
courage. The bill died.
And with it, maybe the last realchance for federal intervention
for decades. So pretty.
Much It was huge blow. But like all these presidencies,
Harrison's had contradictions too, right?
Right. While fighting for civil rights,
he also oversaw expansionism, corporate growth.
(24:30):
Signed the Sherman Antitrust Act, but it wasn't strongly
enforced yet. Supported high tariffs.
And then there's the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, a
horrific event under his administration where U.S. troops
killed hundreds of Lakota Sioux,a stark contrast to his efforts
for black civil rights. It highlights that complexity.
Even reformers carry contradictions.
(24:52):
Resistance must confront them all.
Progress isn't always neater consistent.
Definitely not. So this forgotten fire Harrison
tried to light. It went out.
Yeah, our sources stressed that his vision for protecting black
civil rights wouldn't be seriously taken up again at the
federal level until the 1950s sixty years, leaving black
Americans largely unprotected during that long period.
(25:13):
His effort failed ultimately because truth without a movement
cannot hold back the tide. He didn't have the broad,
sustained political backing needed.
Still, his stand mattered, didn't it, even in failure.
Absolutely. It marked those fault lines.
It showed a resistance was possible, even if overwhelmed.
Like the wave says, a single wave may not shift the sea, but
it can mark the fault lines of resistance.
(25:35):
He provided a model, a symbol proving you could swim against
that current even if you didn't change his direction
immediately. A crucial, if tragic story,
which brings us to the last president in this section.
Part 27. William McKinley, The Corporate
Republic. Yeah, Mckinley's presidency from
1897 until his assassination in 19 O1 really cemented the
dominance of big business, saw America become a global empire,
(25:59):
and consolidated elite power. His election in 1896 was a
watershed moment. He beat the populist William
Jennings Bryan with massive funding from industrialists run
by Mark Hanna, who basically invented modern campaign
fundraising and media strategy. So business interest got him
elected. Overwhelmingly, and once in
office, his administration absolutely aligned government
(26:19):
with big business. High tariffs protected industry,
trusts and monopolies grew with very little check, and the
government's stance towards labor became even harsher.
It felt like the Gilded Age fully matured, where profit was
the ultimate goal. That really hits on that wave
insight. In authoritarian systems, profit
becomes morality. The bottom line trumped
(26:40):
everything else. It certainly seems that way, and
this extended beyond domestic policy into foreign affairs in a
huge way. Spanish American War.
Exactly Sold as liberation for Cuba, fueled by sensationalist
newspapers, but the result? Cuba became nominally
independent but heavily influenced by the US and
America, annexed the Philippines, Puerto Rico and
Guam and overseas empire. So liberation turned into
(27:02):
occupation. Pretty much.
McKinley talked about benevolentassimilation but ended up
fighting a brutal war to crush the Filipino independence
movement led by Emilio Aguinaldo.
It's a stark example of expansion cloaked in noble words
often hides imperial intent. The rhetoric didn't match the
reality of conquest. And back home, this corporate
dominance meant. Crushing dissent, especially
(27:23):
from labor strikes, were often met with violence.
Federal troops deployed to protect company property over
workers rights. Corporate lobbyists had a huge
sway. And McKinley himself?
He was notably silent on the bigissues of the day affecting
ordinary people. Like racial violence?
Yeah, inequality. Yeah, silent on lynching, silent
on rising anti immigrant feelings, silent on the growing
(27:45):
gap between the rich and poor. His focus seemed to be
consolidation of corporate power, of political order.
Justice wasn't the priority. Which leads back to that idea
that authoritarianism grows whensilence Shields the powerful.
His silence allowed these forcesto strengthen.
It created a permissive environment and his presidency
ended violently too. Assassinated in 19 O1 by Leon
(28:06):
Cholgos, an anarchist who is reacting against exactly this
system, against empire, against corporate power, against
inequality. A reflection of the anger
simmering beneath the surface. Definitely.
While Cholgos's act was condemned, his motive spoke to
real grievances. Mckinley's death then brought
Theodore Roosevelt to power, kicking off the Progressive Era
and attempt to respond to some of these problems.
(28:28):
But crucially, that only happened after this corporate
imperial model had taken in deeproot.
It's like that final insight. Resistance may come from the
margins, but it speaks for the silenced.
So McKinley, this calm figure presided over this huge shift
towards a corporate empire. His legacy?
Modern campaigning funded by bigmoney and overseas empire profit
(28:49):
driven policy. Yeah, and a reminder that
sometimes the biggest changes, the most dangerous shifts,
happen quietly, under a surface of calm, through compromise and
indifference. Wow.
OK, so stepping back from these 6 presidents, what's the big
take away? We've seen principles upheld,
abandoned resistance flare up and fade, power consolidate.
What does it all mean for us now?
I think the key thing is realizing these aren't just old
(29:11):
stories. The dynamics we've talked about,
that tension between order and justice, the way rights can be
slowly eroded, how economic power translates into political
power, how silence enables oppression.
These are timeless. They're still playing out.
So understanding Hayes's compromise or Garfield's
attempted awakening, or Cleveland's principled in
(29:34):
action, it gives us tools to seewhat's happening today.
Exactly. The wave insights are like
lenses. They help us recognize these
patterns when they reappear. Maybe in different forms, but
the underlying forces are often the same, recognizing them as
the first step towards challenging them, towards
actually shaping the future we want instead of just letting
things drift. And that's really the goal of
(29:55):
this series, the truth and mythology of America's
presidents, to provide those historical lenses to, you know,
educate resistance. We really hope you'll take these
insights and discuss them. Talk about them with friends,
family, online. Keep the conversation going.
Because these aren't just academic points, they have real
world relevance. Definitely, and if you want to
dig deeper, you can find more audio analysis on the Educate
(30:17):
the Resistance Spotify channels.We've got Vosis de la Vardad for
Spanish speakers and OCCDLU for Arabic speakers too.
That's great. You can also join the
conversation on Blue Ski. We're at
boski.aprofile.educateresistance.b.ski.socialandcheckoutthefreeciviceducationportal@github.comfor sets free civis education.
(30:37):
Lots of resources there, yeah. And look, if you found this deep
dive useful, please do like it, share it, subscribe.
It really helps us get these lessons out to more people.
We're aiming for a million subscribers to really broaden
this educational effort. Which brings us to a final
thought, maybe a question for everyone listening.
These stories, particularly Mckinley's, remind us that often
(30:58):
the most dangerous changes don'thappen with a bang.
They creep in quietly, through small compromises, through
looking the other way, through power shifting subtly.
So the question is, what small, informed actions can you take?
What conversations can you startright where you are in your
community, at work, online, to make sure we're learning from
history that the arc of justice keeps bending forward, even if
(31:20):
it's just a little bit at a time.
We've seen the tide turn before,from liberty to fear, from truth
to control. But this is not the end.
This is our call to stand, to rise, to rebuild.
Because democracy is not a gift,it's a choice.
Every day child's cast by tyrant's hand.
Where truth was drowned beneath the sand, We heard the cry from
(31:42):
far and wide. A.
Silent scream the stars. Can't hide from Epstein's dark,
unsealed decay to bucket laws that strip away the mask has
slipped the right exposed the halls of power now.
Deposed. But through the noise, a spark
remained. A voice not bought, not.
Bent Unchained, a cannon tape not.
Born from gold, but. Fire, just as stories tore from.
(32:04):
The ashes we rise like the dawn breaking lies with the wave as
our guide we reclaim what survived, not just for one, but
for all. We the people here, the culture
of the world, we unite, but we born in the light.
Before cries ringing out afar toblood red lines in Kandahar,
(32:27):
authoritarians fed the flame, but millions rose and spoke our
name. The firewall built from every.
Voice Survivors. Made the noblest choice to
leave, to speak, to build a new a global dream long overdue.
The truth they feared. We now declare the world's not
theirs, we all. Must care from cave to Flint
from. Gaza shore no whelms peace
(32:50):
anymore. From the ashes we rise.
It's like the dawn. Breaking lies with the.
Wave there's our guide. We reclaim and survive not just
for one life for all We the people here, the car to the
wall, we unite or we born in thelight and.
(33:20):
About left to right. It's about right and wrong.
The wave taught us how it happened slowly, subtly, than
all at once. But we've learned, we've seen,
and we've chosen. Never again.
From the ashes we rise no more hearts, for more lies.
With the will in our stride we unite the world wide tide, a new
(33:42):
leader. Fortune, flame.
Not for power, for the name of every voice that dares to find
Gobri born in the light. We are the wave.
And this time? We choose the light.
(34:13):
We are the wave, and this time we choose the light.
(34:56):
We've learned, we've seen, and we've chosen ever again.
From the ashes we arise. No more hate.
No more lies with the wave. Taught us how it.
Happens slowly, subtly, than allat once.
But we've learned, we've seen, and we've chosen.
(35:17):
Never again.
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