"But in four years Polk nearly doubled the territory of the U.S. On the northern border, Polk’s supporters rallied around the expansionist slogan '54°40’ or Fight,' demanding the U.S. take over the entire Pacific Northwest up to that latitude, then the southern boundary of Russian Alaska, even if it meant going to war with Britain. Instead, in 1846 Polk negotiated a treaty that established the U.S.’s northern border at the 49th parallel. In the Southwest, Polk annexed Texas and fought the Mexican-American War, which ended in Mexico ceding more than 500,000 square miles to the U.S., including all of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming, in exchange for $15 million. It was 'one of the largest land grabs in world history,' said historian Hampton Sides... 'He wanted it all, and he got it all in one term....' In terms of personality, Polk and Trump have little in common, Sides said. Despite his aggressive foreign policy, Polk 'was not this blustering, loud, bully of a person. He was morose, a kind of dark guy.' Polk was also known 'for being quite honest…He wasn’t this erratic, crazy person who was constantly throwing people off guard....'"
From
"The Painting That Explains Trump’s Foreign Policy/James K. Polk expanded the U.S. more than any other president. Now his portrait hangs in the Oval Office, a signal that President Trump’s ambition to take over Canada, Greenland and other territory is more than just talk" (Wall Street Journal).
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48 comments:
No. Trump is not serious about taking over Canada.
Why is this even being discussed as something serious? Why are any Canadians taking it seriously? What is wrong with people?
Trump says things. Sometimes he states something far beyond what he is actually aiming for. And he ends up getting what he wants.
But no one is serious about us taking over Canada. Not Trump. Not us. Not Canada. Only a handful in the media and the hand-wringers on the left in both the US and Canada.
Obligatory They Might Be Giants link
Quote:
In terms of personality, Polk and Trump have little in common, Sides said. Despite his aggressive foreign policy, Polk 'was not this blustering, loud, bully of a person. He was morose, a kind of dark guy.' Polk was also known 'for being quite honest…He wasn’t this erratic, crazy person who was constantly throwing people off guard....'
Got it. So having this picture means that Trump is just like Polk in all those bad, nation-expanding ways, but completely different in all the good, honest ways.
Any question as to why people think (scratch 'think', replace with 'realize') the press is anti-Trump?
"He wanted it all, and he got it all.. in one term"
you DO have to admire that. Even though there Are still Large parts of North America that are STILL under the yoke of an english king.
"In terms of personality, Polk and Trump have little in common, Sides said"
Say what you will, they both have fabulous hair.
He wasn’t this erratic, crazy person who was constantly throwing people off guard
Trump is not an erratic, crazy person who is constantly throwing people off guard. He's actually quite consistent and predictable. He's only a problem to his leftie detractors that can't make him go a way with a half-wit sound bite from a talking points memo. They're the one's that resemble crazy and erratic...
Polk had it easy land-grab wise...
Is it just me, or is that a rather crude portrait? I suppose this may have been from when Polk was a younger man, but we have photographs of Polk from his presidential term and the likeness is pretty weak.
Now his portrait hangs in the Oval Office, a signal that President Trump’s ambition to take over Canada, Greenland and other territory is more than just talk" (Wall Street Journal).
Meh. Maybe it's a sign that Trump likes that kind of talk. Does the bust of Churchill mean that Trump or any other president wants to go to war with Germany or have dogfights over DC every day?
Polk was a remarkably effective president who poses a problem for progressive historians. Maybe that will be the verdict on Trump as well.
If the US annexed Canada, where could Cher threaten to move?
Isn’t acquiring Canada just another version of open borders?
It wasn't a "land grab" we paid Mexico money for it. We Mexico the same price we did for the Louisiana purchase $15 million. Pretty good money when you could get 20 lbs of beef for one dollar.
Texas was independent in 1846, Mexico attacked the USA over a border dispute. They had a bigger regular army then we did, and thought they could win. And they lost. And been crying tears ever since. Big bad Bully USA. FOFO.
When I was in high school in Canada I joined a group that was committed to economic nationalism--always meaning trying to prevent Americans from taking over our entire economy. One of our half-joking slogans was "54-50 or fight."
I have no reason to doubt Mr. Trump's honesty. For all the hullabaloo about how he "stiffs" subcontractors, there is precious little evidence of it. Someone actually went down to the courthouse in Manhattan and looked into it and found only two lawsuits that were actually filed against the Trump organization for non-payment of subs. In both cases he said that withholding payment was justified by shoddy materials or workmanship, and as I recall, they both settled out of court.
That's not much to hang on a big-time Manhattan real estate developer, not that the purple-haired baristas and communist bicycle mechanics and lotus-eating college professors who scream "Crook!" at him would know the first thing about that. Developers who get a reputation for stiffing their subs don't get to enjoy 50-year careers erecting hundreds of buildings. I'm sure he drives a hard bargain and there are people in New York who felt kicked in the shins when dealing with him, but that's normal for the real estate business.
I give even less credence to the nakedly corrupt and partisan lawfare that the Democrat establishment tried to hang him with, and am delighted that the average American saw right through their persecution and dropped a ton of bricks on the enemy scum. I hope all of them go to prison and are stripped of everything they own.
I love how liberal/left can never stop projecting and lying about Trump. Trump isn't a liar, nor is a "crazy, erratic, person". That sorta defines the liberal/left. Again, the commie technique of accusing the opposition of what you are doing.
I see 'Canada Talk' as an awakening America to a vulnerability/security issue to our north.
Something to consider. Little more.
I would prefer if he modeled himself on Calvin Coolidge, but you can't have everything.
Mexico repeatedly failed to establish viable colonies in the north due to its own weakness, its low European population and the deadly opposition of the Apaches, Comanches, and other tribes. They had a few trading outposts and that was it. They were unable to control their territories, and the war was fought largely in Mexico.
It's a well known fact that Santa Ana and the British Government wanted to conduct a plebiscite among the indigenous peoples of those regions to determine who they wanted to be colonized by and to, thus, peaceably resolve the issue. Polk, however, in his pig headed, imperialist way declined these offers and went ahead and occupied those territories.
Trump should put up a picture of Milliard Fillmore just to make people speculate.
Two-eyed Jack said "Mexico repeatedly failed to establish viable colonies in the north due to its own weakness, its low European population and the deadly opposition of the Apaches, Comanches, and other tribes. " Exactly. I have been saying for years, decades now, that the Mexican war wasn't about taking land from Mexico as much as it was about which country would take it from the Commanche, et. al.
That's not at all a "steely-eyed" look look in the portrait. His eyes are wide open and compassionate.
They then got the rest of it wrong too.
OMG!!! Not the Polk portrait!!! It’s too much. I’ve gotten used to the fact that he’s Hitler incarnate, that he wants to take Social Security away from old people, that he loves Putin, that he wants to destroy our educational system but now he’s brought out the Polk portrait!!! I must pack and set sail for Ireland.
That portrait makes Polk look like Dracula.
I’m glad we have a President who wants to make his place in history with something other than a war.
I personally don't quite understand why you should quarrel with your closest neighbors 🤔
When I was in junior high James K Polk was my favorite President because he was rather obscure, prosecuted a successful war with Mexico and the associated ginormous land grab and 54-40 or fight. He died horribly from cholera shortly after his presidency.
At his press conference today the president was hosting his own choice for the NATO chief, former prime minister of the Netherlands. They were getting down into the Weeds on building more icebreakers and the large interest in the opening up of the Northwest passage from Western Europe to Asia. They talked about lots of Chinese and Russian vessels nosing around all over the Arctic.
Luke Vost said, "I personally don't quite understand why you should quarrel with your closest neighbors"
Sometimes your next door neighbor is a drug dealer.
In Polk's era, the notion of Manifest Destiny was the norm. Per the history books, all those who left Europe felt they were superior to those who stayed in the corrupt monarchies. They also "knew" that white people were the Chosen People and superior to the unwashed heathen, barbarians, and savages. See missionaries and the missionary position... Finally, the USA was merely taking land from a bunch of European empires who were mucking about the in New World, so what was the harm?
This contretemps with Canada has increased the Liberal party's chance in the upcoming elections. This might be part of Trump's plan, because Carney would be easier for him to dominate than Poilievre.
Of all things Trump has done, I don’t care for the Canada thing. Everything from Ontario East would be a disaster as part of the US. They just want money from others and hate them when they pay it.
BC is a more advanced version of toxic California.
Alberta, Sas, and Manitoba are the best of the bunch but would still be left of Massachusetts,
There is nothing to gain for the US by worrying about Canada, leave them alone and let the, come to the US when they need advanced timely medical care.
Trump pimping lefties.
Napoleon of the Stump
Polk was one of the best. The diametrical opposite of Dishonest Abe. Didn't get thousands of farm boys killed and liberated many Hispanics from the landowner culture that still grips Mexico.
PS Sides is basically an America hater. His bio of Kit Carson is Lefty trash.
Polk was the catalyst for training most of the Officers who conducted the Civil War. Without this on the job training the war would have been fought mush more clumsily.
Remember, like the dancing bear, the wonder is not that my posts are typo free, but that they are posted at all.
The only people who Trump throws off guard are stupid people who think they are smart.
Biden blustered way more than Trump did by the way. He was just so pathetic nobody took his bluster seriously.
I would call the modern democrat party - erratic.
Sewer. Lies... and very erratic.
Speaking of presidential portraits, does Trump get 2 since he is 45 and 47 th presidents?
Love Polk.
Day 53 of Democrats crying loudly.
Love Polk, too. And I'm not prejudiced because I'm some kind of shirttail relative of his on my maternal grandmother's side. And her father was friends with Judge Roy Bean. It's weak but it's my claim to fame
If the US takes the 49th parallel from the Pacific to the Atlantic, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal would be in the United States.
Mexico repeatedly failed to establish viable colonies in the north due to its own weakness, its low European population and the deadly opposition of the Apaches, Comanches, and other tribes.
True, Mexico was as much of an empire as the US and its Northern territories were only lightly settled by Mexicans (Spaniards in New Mexico had been there before Mexico was formed and many still don't consider themselves Mexicans), but in today's thinking the US is still "white" and Mexicans are "brown," even if like their current president they have no Indian ancestry. Also, it really rankles some Mexicans to look at current maps and maps from 1830 or 1840 and see all that land lopped off.
Before we praise Polk too much, though, bear in mind that he was keen on maintaining and expanding slave owning society. He even bought slaves while he was in the White House (secretly, through surrogates so that it wouldn't hurt his reputation with those who might have qualms about slavery). So far as the big problem of his time went, he was definitely part of the problem rather than any part of the answer.
Coolidge was an admirable man and president, but he's been identified with inactivity (and with inactivity in the face of the coming depression). If inactivity or only very modest and meager activity is your goal, you will be run over like the middle-of-the-roaders are. As a builder, Trump understands that a president has to be building, doing or making something or he'll be dismissed as inconsequential, irrelevant, and dispensable.
I, for one, hope a future Republican President will use his presidency as homage to President Calvin Coolidge. He once sat next to a woman at a dinner party who reportedly said to him, “I have made a bet, Mr. Coolidge, that I could get more than two words out of you.” To which he replied, “You lose.” What a glorious four years of non-bluster that would be!"
Oh come on, mikee: You know very well that the second coming of Calvin Coolidge would quickly be met with a #SilentHitler hashtag hysteria
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