What Early Presidents Teach About Politics Today

Feb. 18, 2008 — -- Americans are gloomy about many elements of their lives and list war,the economy and health care as top concerns. They do not even liketheir jobs very much, as a survey by Taleo Research found. When asked how they would feel about their job if it were an actual person, less thanone in 10 said they love it enough to marry it.

Have Americans always been so pessimistic?

On this President's Day holiday, it is helpful to look back to GeorgeWashington's and Abraham Lincoln's time for perspective.

The top concerns Washington faced in 1789 were war, the economy andepidemic health issues. The top concerns confronting Lincoln in 1861were a looming civil war, creating an economy that would benefit theentire country, slavery and promoting an ethical government. Do some ofthese issues sound familiar?

Washington's biggest challenge was healing the country after theAmerican Revolution. We forget that not everyone wanted to secede fromEngland and there was disagreement over how to treat the "loyalists."

He also managed an economy that was based on agricultural production onlarge plantation farms. Tobacco was the primary crop and was a toughone to grow, requiring slave labor to yield crops for export.

Unlike now, there were no machines, no pesticides and no genetically modifiedseeds that resist weeds. A very risky endeavor.

In 1789, the leading causes of death in the United States were smallpox,tuberculosis and malaria. Life expectancy was 40 years old. Aftersurviving small pox as a child and bullets during the AmericanRevolution, Washington died at age 67, several days after a long horseride in the freezing rain. The cause of death was an inflammation ofthe larynx.

While Washington took office after a major war, Lincoln'sentire presidency was focused on another. The Civil War dominated hispresidency and the economy for four years. Lincoln tookoffice in 1860; tuberculosis, diarrhea and pneumonia were the top causesof death and the average American lived to be just over 40.

On this President's Day in 2008, we have one of the youngest and one ofthe oldest presidential candidates running for office. Life expectancyhas doubled to 80 for women and 75 for men. Diseases like smallpox andTB are rare and no one dies of an infected larynx. Although cancerremains a leading cause of death, the death rate has been declining byabout a percent a year since 1991, with rates for breast cancer, lungcancer and colorectal cancer dropping even more.

So why are Americans so worried now? We live in one of the safest timesever. We worry about the wrong things, parts per billion of achemical in our drinking water, adverse effects from a flu shot or ashark attack at the beach. But we do not worry about real risks, likeobesity, heart disease and diabetes. And we do not make the kind oflifestyle changes that lower our risk to things that are preventable.

Technology has made our lives easier, in some ways, and more complicatedin many others. Yes, we can sit down at the computer and Google"migraine headache causes" in 3.6 seconds, but just because we can find123 potential causes of migraines doesn't mean we have to fret aboutevery one. Our Founding Fathers did not have all this technology backthen and they probably worried less about migraines than we do today.

Washington did not have to worry about his daughter crashing thehorse and carriage while she sent a text message. Lincoln did not thinktwice about developing Blackberry thumb.

But these former first presidents had heavy issues to deal with; American morale was low during their campaigns and during their time in office. On issues of theeconomy, war and health care, history seems to repeat itselfsignificantly every century, but overall, the quality of individualAmerican's lives has improved with time.

Dan McGinn is a political history junkie and the CEO of McGinn MS&L, a communications strategy firm based in Washington, D.C.