The Politics of Thanksgiving

For those of us who take our Day of Thanks as a given, this US national holiday has a political history. Oh, yes...we didn't always agree on everything like we do nowadays.

Most of us know the history of American tradition: early English settlers shared their autumn bounty with friendly native Americans in the 1620s. A harvest festival.

But who remembers that in 1789 it was George Washington himself, in the very first presidential proclamation ever, who called for a day to nationalize the tradition, calling for Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November?

Washington's Thanksgiving nearly caused a revolt. Members of Congress (who were as cooperative and forward thinking back then as they are now) objected. Their argument: the president does not have that authority over the states.

You can imagine the indignant reaction of those Congressional representatives from each State... "Washington has no right to tell us when to celebrate."

Back then, and even today, no one wants Washington to tell them what to do.

The "founder of our nation" was forced to give in and only "recommend" a national day of thanks. Washington had to send a copy of his suggested proclamation to each state, hoping the governors would hold their own "state" day of Thanksgiving.

For years after, Thanksgiving was left to each American state until another great President stepped in...

Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday on the last Thursday of November in 1863. (It was driven by an aggressive campaign by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale. Let's call her "the Oprah of her day.") Some states followed along with Lincoln, others didn't.

The annual presidential Thanksgiving-on-the-last-Thursday-in-November proclamation continued. Year after year other presidents would make the same announcement, yet a presidential declaration of Thanksgiving Day was not legally binding. State governors simply avoided the question of state's rights by issuing their own Thanksgiving proclamations. Even if most states named the same day the president had announced.

This is like when your manager tells you to wash the company car each Thursday and you tell him you don't do car washes. But it just so happens you will be going to the car wash each Thursday. So you'll be happy to do it because you will be there anyways, not because you were told to. So there.

State rights is a bitch because you can't ever agree with Washington (or Lincoln, for that matter) just because they might be right (as in right and wrong). Instead state's rights is all about who has the right (as in the power to make you do something that wasn't your idea in the first place).

In catechism class, we were taught if we didn't want to do something because it wasn't our idea, it was pride, one of the deadly sins. And we would go to hell, not Congress.

Yet, since Lincoln's inspiration in 1863, Thanksgiving began being celebrated annually in USA.

Then, in 1939, a third President, another of our most famous ones, decided to change the date of Thanksgiving. Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November.

Roosevelt believed if Thanksgiving was earlier, consumer spending during the Great Depression would rise (because it extended the time between the holiday and Christmas.)

At the time, advertising goods for Christmas before Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate. However, Macy's was able to persuade Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving, arguing it would be a boon to the economy.

Macy's are the folks that have the world's largest parade at Thanksgiving in New York City. The now-famous parade was first started in New Jersey, by Bamberger's of Newark, then one of America's largest stores. Macy's bought out Bambergers and took away their parade, moving it to New York in 1924. And that, my friends, became the real Miracle on 34th Street.

Not everybody agreed with Franklin Roosevelt and Macy's. Republicans called it an affront to the memory of Lincoln. People began referring to November 30 as the "Republican Thanksgiving" and November 23 as the "Democratic Thanksgiving" (or sometimes even the "Franksgiving" although they didn't have the LOL to put after that wise-crack in those days).

Since a presidential declaration of Thanksgiving Day was STILL not legally binding, Roosevelt's Thanksgiving change (like Washington's and Lincoln's) was generally disregarded. Twenty-three states went along with Roosevelt's recommendation, 22 did not. Some, like Texas (don't mess with Texas) could not decide and took both days as government holidays. Big state, big holidays.

In 1941, Congress got together and-- against the wishes of the President-- made Thanksgiving fall on the fourth Thursday of November. Yes, Roosevelt did sign their bill, although probably because he had bigger problems at hand. America was just about to get sucked into WWII.

For the first time Thanksgiving in USA was a matter of federal law. Only Texas, with impunity, ignored it for another twelve years.

All those heated, thankless arguments over whether the national holiday of gratitude should be on the third or the fourth week of a month must have seemed extremely petty in light of unfolding global events. But most people hardly noticed and went about their business..

One day after America finally agreed to show national unity on its Thanksgiving holiday, several rural counties in southern Oregon and northern California joined together to secede -- not from the United States but from the states of California and Oregon.

Giving thanks was clearly not on their minds.

In 1941, on November 27th, men with hunting rifles stopped traffic on U.S. Route 99 and handed out copies of a Proclamation of Independence. The new state, State of Jefferson, was in "patriotic rebellion against the States of California and Oregon" and would continue to "secede every Thursday until further notice." Every Thursday? Like a man's night out?

It took an attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th to end this short "Thursdays-only" rebellion.

Oddly enough, almost one year later the "State of Jefferson" was one of the few places in the continental USA to be attacked during World War II. A Japanese pilot dropped bombs on that part of the Oregon Coast.

By then, most probably, the former State of Jefferson rebels were more grateful to spend at least one of their Thursdays enjoying a national Thanksgiving.

Today, when we enjoy Thanksgiving, it pays to remember a little history.

Celebrity presidents with divisive followings, state rights activists, retail giants, libtards who wanted to give thanks for a meal with some Native Americans who looked more like red-skinned immigrants, red neck "Jefferson" rebels, badly-behaving Republicans... all these are not new elements to the American story.

They are as common to American political life as turkey is to Thanksgiving. Democracy works via the dynamic tension of dissent.

While we may feel the pain of political division in America, we can feel proud that somehow it all still works out. The sharp sticks that we use to poke each other gradually will dull and turn into utensils. For a while, until the knives come out again.

We can all sit down at Thanksgiving together this year and say a genuine thanks... thanks that later generations will probably be as ignorant of our bad behavior this year as we are of our forefather's actions.

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