By Blaney Pridgen

The White House has been said to be “the people’s house”.  I have always liked that and it has always been a relatively simple house in sharp contrast to the palaces of the great and powerful.  It was not a Versailles, Kremlin, or Buckingham but simply a fine old house of believable grandeur and a history of leaders of all of the people and not a regime of the few. 

The People’s House…most of us do not relate to gawdy, golden affectation, overdone hugeness, and grandiose tastes.  We the people have no occasions for sweeping ballrooms.  We might visit a Biltmore and gawk at the ridiculous excesses of a Gilded Age, but we go home to believable residences closer to the pilgrim heart and frontier spirit.  Of course there are exceptions to that, like the MacMansions of the nouveau-riche and the expansive compounds of actors, sports stars, hedge fund operators and the highly successful grifters of religion, politics, and made-for-profit medicine.  But these are a tacky minority.  They are not John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, or Jimmy Carter or even “W.”.  They are not the people of this fading democracy and damaged republic.  They are the profiteers of that fade and the damage, and the people suffer for it.  And the restrained balance of a great but not grand old home for temporary residence turns into a movie set for the rich and famous and anyone with regal fantasies.  Alas. 

I have often thought of a statement that the White House might make when visited by foreign dignitaries.  First, it is a repository of history of presidents passing through and not permanent.  It is not the president’s home, but where he lives while in power.  Otherwise, it is the people’s home, the home of the electorate’s hope in someone who represents everyone.  Second, it is thoroughly American in general taste, not European or Russian.  It is richly refined but not what my grandmother would call “fancy pants”.  I believe foreign dignitaries might pick up on all of that and realize that we are a new world nation fashioned out of a frontier by immigrants. 

Which leads me to wonder what a ripped up rose garden and airplane hanger dance hall, says to someone endeavoring to understand the executive branch of our government.  And what does this say about us who are the people of the “people’s house”?  frankly, what are our tastes in leadership and what does this imply about our democratic republic? 

I remember criticism of LBJ showing off a surgical scar, of Nixon gauding the White House guards like Prussian military, and of Clinton’s, well, obsessions.  These are presidents forgetting who they are.  That’s not architecture but it is who we appear to be at our worst in a caricature of power.  So is that gigantic ballroom which will be bigger than our grand old house.  In times past, egregious egos and some necessary additions have brought changes to the White House.  This editorial is not about those necessary additions but those unnecessary egos out of control and out of good taste.  For now, all we the people can do is woefully watch and work for better days.