Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) served as the seventh President of the United States (1829-1837).  He was, quite possibly, the worst president we’ve ever had.  His hatred of “elites” and desire to please the “common man” in all things led him to destroy the Second Bank of the United States.  This resulted in unregulated and irresponsible lending, massive bank failures leading to the “crisis of ’37,” and a prolonged depression.  He believed the president (well, himself), rather than the Supreme Court, to be the final arbiter of what laws were “constitutional.”  This belief, along with his own deep hostility to non-whites, led him to refuse to enforce the Supreme Court decision overturning the seizure of lands from Indian tribes by Southern states.  This, in turn, led to the “Trail of Tears.”  He appointed his lieutenant in legal matters, Roger B. Taney, to the Supreme Court when John Marshall croaked.  Taney later wrote the Dred Scott Decision.  With Thomas Jefferson, Jackson is regarded as the founder of the Democratic Party and the party annually held a “Jefferson-Jackson Day” fund raising gala.  In recent years, the title of the event has been molting because of the whole unfortunate slave-owners thing.  Not everyone sees Jackson in this light.[1] 

            Going on sixty years ago, the historian Marvin “Bud” Meyers analyzed what he called the “Jacksonian Persuasion.”[2]  Jacksonianism wasn’t an elaborate or formal ideology.  Rather, it was a set of often conflicting beliefs among ordinary people.  The Jacksonians idealized a vision of a society that was slipping away as laissez-faire capitalism advanced.  Change disrupted their lives, often for the worse over the short-run.  It bore a host of costs: not only economic, but also political, social and cultural.  It was full of ethical challenges or divergences from the way things had always been done.  At the same time, many of the Jacksonians embraced the new opportunities.  This created a psychological tension.  They blamed the urban elites—especially bankers and industrialists—for the changes.  The elites were characterized by the “[d]efective morals, habits, and character [that] are nurtured in the trades which seek wealth without labor, employing the stratagems of speculative maneuver, privilege grabbing, and monetary manipulation.”[3]  Eventually, other approaches overtook the Jacksonian Persuasion.  It died. 

            Not dead, just sleeping.  Decades of elite mismanagement have revived Jacksonianism.  Today’s “Jacksonian Persuasion” is anti-elitist, in both politics and the military.  It deeply distrusts big business, especially Big Tech.  They think international organizations are a joke, as is spreading democracy into places where it has not already developed naturally.  But they think that China is a real and great danger and they believe in a strong defense.  More than just having a strong military, the United States should use its power without hesitation when the country is actually threatened.  They like and admire strong leaders pursuing the national interest, even when they don’t fully agree with the policy.  (JMO, but they also like sticking their thumb in the eye of the “elites” just to watch the reaction.)   

            Today, Donald Trump is the leader of the “Jacksonian Persuasion.”[4] 

[1] See Robert V. Remini’s three-volume biography of Jackson (1977-1984), if you’ve got the time.  It is highly esteemed and not just a white-wash. 

[2] Marvin Meyers, The Jacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belief (1957). 

[3] Meyers, Jacksonian Persuasion, p. 22.

[4] Walter Russell Mead, “America’s Jacksonian Turn,” WSJ, 15 July 2024.