Presidents Day – A Hollow, Crass Celebration Dressed Up As Honor

America has a few questionable and controversial holidays, especially recent ones created purely for racial or DEI purposes, but our most stupid holiday still remains Presidents’ Day.

Presidents’ Day is widely criticized as a “fake” or “stupid” holiday because it has devolved from honoring one, then two, specific, great American leaders into a generic, corporate-driven shopping event, often viewed as a “pointless” excuse for a three-day weekend.

The “pointless” timing is because it falls in February, often considered a bleak time for a holiday, leading to criticisms that it is simply a “vacuous” day off.

It serves no real commemorative purpose, instead just acting as a winter mattress or car sale day. It might as well be “Monday Day,” or “Mattress Sale Day.” It is a huge sales day because retailers are trying to clear their inventory and take advantage of tax season.

This is why we should change it back to its original purpose, commemorating our great first president who founded our Union, and his successor who saved it from a bloody Civil War.

Originally established as George Washington’s Birthday (Feb. 22), the holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February (under the 1971 Uniform Monday Holiday Act) and merged with Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (Feb. 12), which has never been a federal holiday, to create a long weekend.

The merger of the two great presidents’ birthdays was designed to place the federal holiday between the two leaders’ birthdays, merging them into one. 

By the mid-1980s, retailers and states began using the term “Presidents’ Day.”

This began its short journey toward losing its original noble purpose and historical focus, and debasing the holiday in the same way they have debased “Memorial Day.”

Most people don’t know about “Presidents Day’s” still ambiguous official status. While a federal holiday for 100+ years, Congress has never officially named it “Presidents’ Day,” or “Washington and Lincoln Day”; it remains legally recognized as “Washington’s Birthday.”

Still, while federal law holds the day as Washington’s Birthday, numerous states officially recognize it as Presidents’ Day or specifically as “Washington and Lincoln Day.”

Washington, a man of great moral character, was rightly honored because, as America’s first president, he ensured the new nation, born of a revolutionary war he led as general of the Continental Army, became a civilian-led republic and not a monarchy or military dictatorship.

He also established the precedent of serving only two terms and retiring from public life.

Lincoln was rightly honored on this day for his role in preserving the American Union and abolishing slavery during the Civil War. Before the federal shift, Lincoln’s February 12th birthday was observed as a holiday in many states, separate from Washington’s birthday.

Washington established our republic, and Lincoln saved it from division and collapse. Both are worthy of commemoration.

Not all our presidents deserve the same treatment. Some, like Joe Biden, deserve to be condemned; others, like Warren Harding, Millard Fillmore, or John Tyler, just simply forgotten; and a select few, like Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama, deserve both.

There have been several bills introduced in Congress to officially restore the individual focus on Washington and Lincoln.

For example, the Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act was proposed in the early 2000s to require the president to issue a proclamation recognizing Lincoln’s birthday, but sadly, these measures have consistently failed to pass.

However, some states have made it official. For instance, Alabama officially calls the day “George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday.” Other states, such as Oregon, use “Presidents’ Day” specifically to ensure Lincoln is included.

Maybe it’s time to again propose the Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act to honor our two great leaders with their federal holiday and finally rid us of our most crass and stupid federal holiday.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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