Latest / Ridiculous History / Post-Presidential Careers, Part Two: Adams, Taft, And More

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Post-Presidential Careers, Part Two: Adams, Taft, And More · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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Speaker 1: the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
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Speaker 1: for tuning in. Let's give a big shout out to
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Speaker 1: our super producer, mister Max Williams. Oh oh, did you
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Speaker 1: hear that howl over there in the distance? Who's that?
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Speaker 1: It's young mister Noel Brown.
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Speaker 2: Who's that boy?
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Speaker 1: Men? Brown and I am going by Ben Bollen. Recently
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Speaker 1: we are.
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Speaker 2: In this stunning turn of events, this stunning turn of.
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Speaker 1: A riotous plot twist, and we are midway through im
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Speaker 1: media arrests on our continuing exploration of United States presidents
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Speaker 1: who did a lot after they got the big job. Right.
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Speaker 1: So we talked a lot about Carter. You might know him.
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Speaker 1: He used to mess with the peanut industry guy named
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Speaker 1: Jimmy out from Georgia, and we wished him a happy birthday.
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Speaker 1: But Noel, we wanted to dive further into the presidential past.
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Speaker 1: So folks who like weird presidential history, this one's for you.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk about John Quincy Adams. And yeah, and I'm
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Speaker 1: sorry I was whispering off Mike as we were recording.
1:48
Speaker 1: I don't think Quincy's the best name. It doesn't have
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Speaker 1: a mouth feel that I love. How do you feel
1:53
Speaker 1: about the fruit? The humble quints? It's great. I just
1:57
Speaker 1: don't think about the name while i'm eating.
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Speaker 2: It, fair enough, I don't even what is a quince?
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Speaker 2: Is it like a raisin?
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Speaker 3: If you guys want to get really mad, just remember
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Speaker 3: that John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams, had
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Speaker 3: a son and named his son John Adams the Second.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, it's like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel
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Speaker 1: or something. Everybody's got the same friggin names.
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Speaker 3: But also, the Adams family was really into interbreeding.
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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, that is diplomatically put and also true.
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Speaker 2: As well as the Adams family of television fiction fame.
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Speaker 2: They also you know, reading now you said your inbreeding. Sorry,
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Speaker 2: that's the diplomacy part, kay kay, because cousin cousin kissing wasn't.
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Speaker 1: As bad back then.
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Speaker 2: Cousin it Yeah, I remember, I remember the character.
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Speaker 1: Also, Gomez and Mortitia had a really supportive relationship. They
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Speaker 1: really loved each other.
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Speaker 2: True.
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Speaker 1: I mean, he was a little PDA, but you know,
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Speaker 1: came from a little little PDA, little tam, you know,
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Speaker 1: all the hits.
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Speaker 2: So today we're talking about JQA John Quincy Adams, who
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Speaker 2: already quoted him, so let's noted him and talk about him.
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Speaker 2: That is, there are three presidents who ran for other
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Speaker 2: federal positions federal offices, I eat not the president after
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Speaker 2: being president, and then one those later posts. There's Andrew Johnson,
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Speaker 2: who was removed from office by his own party, ran
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Speaker 2: as a third party candidate for the US House in
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Speaker 2: seventeen eighty two, lost, then ran for usn Aate in
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Speaker 2: eighteen seventy four and one, and then died.
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Speaker 1: You have the aforementioned terrible job Tyler. What did he do? Oh,
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Speaker 1: he got removed from office by his own party because
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Speaker 1: of the worst trading. He ran for the Confederate State Congress,
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Speaker 1: he won, and then he, like Johnson, also died. This
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Speaker 1: is a very popular trend in the human species. That
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Speaker 1: seems so. Yeah, And so, as of now, Tyler is
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Speaker 1: the only US president to have won a political position
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Speaker 1: in a different country technically because of the Confederacy. But
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Speaker 1: then John Quincy Adams had the arguably the most successful
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Speaker 1: post presidential political career. Let's learn more about Adams. He's
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Speaker 1: born on July eleventh, seventeen sixty seven. He is definitely
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Speaker 1: a product of nepotism. He is the eldest son of
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Speaker 1: John Adams, so he's the son of the second US president.
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Speaker 1: And he is definitely when we said Jimmy Carter was
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Speaker 1: like a regular dude, this guy is definitely a patrician.
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Speaker 1: He's definitely landed, gentry, aristocracy. He covid man. Yeah, but
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Speaker 1: it was way easier to graduate from Harvard back in
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Speaker 1: seventeen eighty seven. You just had to be a white landowner,
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Speaker 1: which she had going for him for sure.
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Speaker 2: He apprenticed in law with some highly influential and renowned
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Speaker 2: attorneys while traveling across Europe with his father, who was
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Speaker 2: a diplomat. He later became a diplomat as well. JQA
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Speaker 2: would go on to first enter the world of politics
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Speaker 2: in eighteen o three, being elected as the US Senator
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Speaker 2: for Massachusetts in that same year, where he served just
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Speaker 2: a single term.
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Speaker 1: Mm hmm, And in eighteen seventeen he becomes the Secretary
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Speaker 1: of State under then President James Monroe. And secretary of
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Speaker 1: State still has this kind of shiny connotation to it.
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Speaker 1: If you are in the back rooms of the two
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Speaker 1: dominant political parties in the United States, now then you
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Speaker 1: will often be offered the position of secretary of State
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Speaker 1: as sort of a door prize slash setup for a
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Speaker 1: future candidacy if you agree to back somebody else. We
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Speaker 1: see this again in things like the Clinton dynasty. Right,
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Speaker 1: We see this in a lot of these things. And
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Speaker 1: America still make no mistake, is in aristocracy and all but.
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Speaker 2: Name Jefferson, Madison, right, all big names that went on
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Speaker 2: to become president who did hold that position.
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Speaker 1: And so it turns out that this promise was made
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Speaker 1: good in eighteen twenty four when Quincy jeez, just to
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Speaker 1: we'll call them Adams. When Adams, when's the election in
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Speaker 1: eighteen twenty four, he becomes president. There's not a lot
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Speaker 1: of agreement. It was not a unanimous decision. There were
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Speaker 1: accusations of corruption, and those accusations of corruption and followed
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Speaker 1: that administration like a shadow for all its days. We
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Speaker 1: have a quote about this from our friends of Britannica.
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Speaker 2: His presidency, during which the country prosper, was in most
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Speaker 2: respects a political failure because of the virulent opposition of
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Speaker 2: the Jacksonians.
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Speaker 1: Supporters of Andrew Jackson, who for the record, should have
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Speaker 1: won that election.
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Speaker 2: That's true, despite you know that guy sucking. He favored,
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Speaker 2: among other forward looking proposals, creating a national university and
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Speaker 2: a national Astronomical Observatory. Yeah, that's cool down for that check.
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Speaker 2: He wished the Western territories to be held in trust
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Speaker 2: by the federal government and developed only gradually, and he okay,
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Speaker 2: I don't know about that one. He proposed a vast
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Speaker 2: expansion of the country's roads with federal aid boom. However,
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Speaker 2: Congress turned a generally deaf ear just the one ear
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Speaker 2: to his initiatives. In eighteen twenty eight, Jackson was elected
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Speaker 2: president over Adams with one hundred and seventy eight electoral
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Speaker 2: votes to Adams the eighty three electoral college.
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Speaker 1: Anyway, Yeah, you're right. They were kind of waiting for Jackson,
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Speaker 1: and the Jacksonians had a lot of what the Wire
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Speaker 1: would call suction at that time. So, all right, so
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Speaker 1: the guy gets to be president once. It's a crazy ride,
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Speaker 1: it's a long line. He makes it, and he is
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Speaker 1: for the time pretty elderly. When he retires or when
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Speaker 1: he loses potus, he is sixty two years old, and
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Speaker 1: at first he's thinking, I'm gonna fade out of public life.
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Speaker 1: You know what, I mean, I did my bit. I
8:38
Speaker 1: had great ideas. Not all of them worked, and I'm
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Speaker 1: mad at Congress. We'll go back to Britannica where they
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Speaker 1: say Adams retired to private life in eighteen twenty nine
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Speaker 1: in the Massachusetts town of Quincy Quincy. It is the
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Speaker 1: wait a minute, is this is a quinc Is this
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Speaker 1: a quincyncedence?
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Speaker 3: It has to be, I mean, being a Massachusetts town,
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Speaker 3: it was probably what like sixteen hundred, seventeen hundreds.
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Speaker 1: This has been pre.
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Speaker 4: Maybe they're named after something else.
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Speaker 1: Massachusetts loves terrible names.
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Speaker 3: Well, hello, we have a after facts with the Max
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Speaker 3: with the facts. We'll workshop it later on.
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Speaker 4: But turns out that Quincy got its name in seventeen
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Speaker 4: ninety two when it was named after the Colonel John Quincy.
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Speaker 4: John Quincy was the maternal grandfather of Abigail Adams, who was,
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Speaker 4: of course the mother of John Quincy Adams, and the
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Speaker 4: reports are Quincy Adams. John Quincy Adams probably should specify
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Speaker 4: here was named after the colonel John Quincy, and John
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Speaker 4: Quincy Adams was of course born prior to the town
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Speaker 4: having its name changed to Quincy. But yeah, yeah, play
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Speaker 4: the sun.
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Speaker 2: Qu Quincy is a little kind of coastal town in Massachusetts.
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Speaker 2: It's it's near Boston. I've actually been there. It's very
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Speaker 2: idyllic and very very small. Lots of bed and breakfasts
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Speaker 2: and sailboats and things like that. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: One of the dough Boys is from Quincy. He talks
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Speaker 2: about it a lot on them the dough Boys podcast.
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Speaker 1: And so this guy goes there, right, and he's like,
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Speaker 1: I'm retired. I'm going to live in a town that,
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Speaker 1: in a burst of humility, also has the worst part
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Speaker 1: of my name as the name of the town. And
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Speaker 1: that's how he said it too. He also hated Quincy.
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Speaker 2: He's couldn't stay away. He just couldn't.
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Speaker 1: That's why he was there, and never say the name
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Speaker 1: of the town out loud to him, no eye contact
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Speaker 1: when he walks down main Street. He couldn't take the
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Speaker 1: private life. In eighteen thirty, he gets pulled back. Let's
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Speaker 1: picture this ridiculous history cinematic universe. Members of the anti
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Speaker 1: Masonic movement, which you talked about in the past, they
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Speaker 1: come up to him and he's like one of those
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Speaker 1: old action movie he rose, I like, hey, Quincy, one
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Speaker 1: last job.
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Speaker 2: Right, And so what happens He went out for a
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Speaker 2: bid for the National House of Representatives, which he won,
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Speaker 2: and when it was kind of suggested to him that
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Speaker 2: his acceptance of this position would actually degrade a former president,
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Speaker 2: I'm not sure I understand the logic behind that, but
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Speaker 2: let's see what Adams has to say.
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Speaker 1: Step down. I think the way that people degrade a
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Speaker 1: former president, I see I sy it to be a
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Speaker 1: famous A list film actor.
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Speaker 2: You don't want to go into TV something that's yeah,
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Speaker 2: But that's not the case anymore. And it took people
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Speaker 2: blazing trails to change the perception of that. Kind of
12:10
Speaker 2: shout out to Gary Oldman Slow Horses, what a kick
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Speaker 2: ass show. A new episode just dropped yesterday. I look
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Speaker 2: forward to watching it. He had this to say of
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Speaker 2: that sentiment that no person could be degraded by serving
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Speaker 2: the people as a representative in Congress or a selectman
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Speaker 2: of his town.
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Speaker 1: I absolutely agree. Right, What a dumb thing to that.
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Speaker 2: Whoever said that we don't have a direct we don't
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Speaker 2: have we're not naming names. I don't even think we
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Speaker 2: have them. But I would argue that's a pretty bone
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Speaker 2: headed perspective.
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Speaker 1: Like you can't be degraded at all. Uh if you.
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Speaker 1: If you say that you care about public service, then
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Speaker 1: you should care about it in any possible capacity.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't be president again. I mean, go on
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Speaker 2: and do some more good if if that's your bag.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, if it's actually about the public well being and
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Speaker 1: the public interest rather than about yourself, than any way
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Speaker 1: to help is a good way to help, you know
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Speaker 1: what I mean. So I do agree with Quincy on
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Speaker 1: that when, like you were saying, he gets set up
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Speaker 1: in Congress House of Reps, he has a long career
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Speaker 1: in Congress, and he opposes the expansion of slavery. Later
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Speaker 1: scholars of John Quincy Adams will argue that he is
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Speaker 1: very much an abolitionist at heart. However, in his legislative
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Speaker 1: record you don't see a lot of that ideology coming
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Speaker 1: to paper.
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Speaker 2: And again, not being apologist for any of this stuff here,
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Speaker 2: but we do know that oftentimes concessions have to be
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Speaker 2: made in order to get things done at all, and
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Speaker 2: the heartfelt beliefs of whatever they may be, of certain
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Speaker 2: presidents don't always find their way to law because of
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Speaker 2: so much opposition and just the tide of the time.
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Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, And he introduced he introduced bills that are
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Speaker 1: still very important and part of American fabric today. Things
14:20
Speaker 1: like the idea that if you are born in the US,
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Speaker 1: you are automatically a US citizen, and he fought against
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Speaker 1: slavery in that regard. He said, it doesn't matter if
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Speaker 1: your parents are enslaved, if you're born here, you are
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Speaker 1: a US citizen and should have the rights and responsibilities
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Speaker 1: outlined as a result, and then bills that tried to
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Speaker 1: block the addition of states with legalized human enslavement. These
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Speaker 1: resolutions were similar to Carter. There were great ideas, but
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Speaker 1: they neither of these were passed. And he did fight
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Speaker 1: for a lot of anti sl measures, but like we
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Speaker 1: were saying earlier, it didn't hit the paper right, it
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Speaker 1: didn't become policy. He also, this is interesting, he fought
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Speaker 1: there were these things called gag rules that said you
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Speaker 1: couldn't even bring up the idea of ending human slavery.
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Speaker 1: How crazy is that? So he fought against those gag rules.
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Speaker 1: He was like, can we at least say maybe you
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Speaker 1: shouldn't legalize the enslavement of human beings? Yeah?
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Speaker 2: I mean, isn't this supposed to be an open discourse
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Speaker 2: in government? Don't we have freedom of speech? It just
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Speaker 2: seems the idea of a gag order seems, a gag
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Speaker 2: law or whatever seems kind of patently, you know, an
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Speaker 2: American American.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and then oh, also shout out to the
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Speaker 1: excellent film based on a true story, Amistad, and JQA
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Speaker 1: shows up to represent a group of people who were
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Speaker 1: enslaved on the Spanish slave ship Amistad. These folks, as
16:06
Speaker 1: we all know, mute need fought the power, freed themselves.
16:10
Speaker 1: Spoilers and yeah, sure right. Also the Titanic sinks whatever man,
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Speaker 1: and they really root and I think it's better to
16:21
Speaker 1: rip the band aid off that one. And he argued
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Speaker 1: for the freedom of these people in front of the
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Speaker 1: Supreme Court. And speaking of spoilers, nol our boy Quincy
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Speaker 1: won the case.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is like a few good men vibes. You
16:40
Speaker 2: can't handle the truth, is what he said. No, he
16:42
Speaker 2: didn't say that, but it's a big deal. Yes, that's cool.
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Speaker 2: I think this is These are positive things. Perhaps the
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Speaker 2: most dramatic event in Adam's life was his one could
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Speaker 2: argue untimely to minds on February twenty first, eighteen forty eight,
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Speaker 2: in the act of protesting an honorary grant of swords
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Speaker 2: by Congress to the generals who had won what Adams
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Speaker 2: considered the most unrighteous war with Mexico, which we should
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Speaker 2: also know here Max noted is another thing that he's
17:13
Speaker 2: on the right side of history about he.
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Speaker 3: An American war was fed up.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, not not. Most wars are.
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Speaker 2: They are.
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Speaker 1: It's true, wars never war never changes.
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Speaker 2: But he unfortunately suffered a cerebral stroke, very publicly, fell
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Speaker 2: unconscious to the floor of the House and passed away
17:31
Speaker 2: two days later in the Capitol building. His funeral service
17:35
Speaker 2: and related events took place in Washington and in his
17:38
Speaker 2: native Massachusetts kind of took on the character of a
17:43
Speaker 2: national day of mourning.
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Speaker 1: He was more or less pretty beloved.
17:48
Speaker 3: I would say it's probably similar to like when John
17:50
Speaker 3: McCain passed away a number of years ago, where it's
17:52
Speaker 3: just like everyone's like, we may not agree with his
17:55
Speaker 3: political things, but everyone agreed that he was a good person.
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Speaker 1: Yeah and yeah, and they liked just like McCain, they
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Speaker 1: liked the idea that this guy would listen to people,
18:05
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And oh, McCain is maybe
18:09
Speaker 1: a different episode, but we are moving on again. That's
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Speaker 1: another amazing post presidential career, but that one is still
18:17
Speaker 1: involved in politics. We got another one where you can
18:20
Speaker 1: I get a beat drop Max Taire oh Man used
18:30
Speaker 1: to be President William Auer daff He his time in
18:36
Speaker 1: the White House was kind of brief. Uh, he was
18:39
Speaker 1: a one term president. He had a kind of not
18:46
Speaker 1: great guy coming in after him, which maybe makes him
18:49
Speaker 1: look a little better in context because after Taft's one term,
18:53
Speaker 1: Woodrow Wilson comes in and sort of fails his way
18:56
Speaker 1: upwards for two terms.
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Speaker 3: Spoiler alert, I am working on a Willdrow Wilson brief,
19:02
Speaker 3: and I'm trying to go as middle of the road
19:04
Speaker 3: as I podcast.
19:05
Speaker 1: Man, you've been working on that one for a while too.
19:08
Speaker 3: The mom that's it.
19:09
Speaker 4: I just kept put it down yet really angry.
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Speaker 1: Working on it. It's like when it's like when I
19:15
Speaker 1: get to into the writers man, and I remember asking, guys,
19:20
Speaker 1: what portion of these James Joyce letters can we read?
19:25
Speaker 1: How much can we say about Oh, God, he loved forts,
19:31
Speaker 1: he really did, So why do we learn more about Taft?
19:35
Speaker 1: He is again, honestly, there's a little bit of nepotism
19:40
Speaker 1: there because when he's born in eighteen fifty seven, he
19:43
Speaker 1: is the son of a very distinguished judge named Alfonso Taft,
19:50
Speaker 1: who also served in many other very high level political
19:55
Speaker 1: roles Secretary of War, attorney General. It's just like, I'm
20:00
Speaker 1: I'm just saying he wasn't born in the gutter.
20:02
Speaker 2: Ben You've made your position on the name Quincy very clear.
20:06
Speaker 2: What is your take on the name Alfonso.
20:08
Speaker 1: I'm okay with Alfonso. What about you? I love it.
20:12
Speaker 1: You like Alfonso.
20:13
Speaker 2: I like it even when people people do the unnecessary
20:15
Speaker 2: shortening and call the people alphons.
20:18
Speaker 1: Oh, Alfons, like Alfie. Alfie's cool.
20:22
Speaker 2: I don't know. I guess when I hear Alfi, I
20:24
Speaker 2: either think of like, what's that, like that Dudley Moore
20:27
Speaker 2: movie where he's like a spoiled rich kid kind of
20:32
Speaker 2: I think it's called Alfi. Yeah, and then it was
20:34
Speaker 2: remade with Jude Law. But also I just think of
20:37
Speaker 2: alf You know, the space alien puppet, the eight Cats.
20:42
Speaker 1: Those are the three facts we have from that sitcom.
20:45
Speaker 1: And no, I've got another one for you. Yeah, And
20:48
Speaker 1: I have.
20:49
Speaker 2: A a packaged alf action figure somewhere around here. And
20:54
Speaker 2: he had a he played saxophone in a nightclub under
20:59
Speaker 2: a pseudonym which was gold on a second, I gotta
21:04
Speaker 2: look like it's really funny.
21:05
Speaker 1: Alf Also, Alf's an acronym, right, alien life form.
21:09
Speaker 2: That's right, let's see on earth. He goes by his
21:12
Speaker 2: real name, Gordon.
21:14
Speaker 1: Oh, Gordon Shumway.
21:15
Speaker 2: Gordon Shumway, thank you. That's right, that's that's what my
21:18
Speaker 2: action figures. This is alf and then for this is Gordon.
21:20
Speaker 2: And he's wearing a Hawaiian sure, and he came with
21:22
Speaker 2: a little saxophone accessory, so sorry for that aside.
21:27
Speaker 1: No, it is ridiculous history. This makes sense.
21:29
Speaker 2: We're gonna come for the history, you stay for the asides.
21:31
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to some Adams family stuff at the
21:34
Speaker 1: very end too, from part one. But uh thing, yeah, Wednesday,
21:38
Speaker 1: Oh Pugsley, Oh oh, I got a question for you
21:41
Speaker 1: at the end, all right. William Howard Taft, son of
21:45
Speaker 1: Alfonso Taft, not associated with Gordon Shumway just yet until
21:50
Speaker 1: just now. Uh. Taft graduates from Yale and he goes
21:55
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati, Ohio, which was a big deal city at
21:58
Speaker 1: the time, to study and practice law. Do you like that?
22:03
Speaker 1: You like that little natty diss there?
22:05
Speaker 2: Right? And then he found his way into the road
22:07
Speaker 2: of politics and rose to the ranks through Republican judicial appointments. Again,
22:12
Speaker 2: probably a little nepotism there, but it's okay. Through his
22:15
Speaker 2: own kind of savvy and competence and just you know,
22:19
Speaker 2: kind of being around. And as he once wrote to
22:21
Speaker 2: prep Spit sarcastically, he always had his quote plate the
22:27
Speaker 2: right side up when offices were falling, So I guess
22:31
Speaker 2: meaning he was there to catch them on his plates.
22:34
Speaker 2: He was just kind of around to pick up the
22:35
Speaker 2: pieces just by being there.
22:37
Speaker 1: Or like if the table is removed, the plate is
22:40
Speaker 1: still in the right direction, so still holding the food
22:44
Speaker 1: or the fairments.
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Speaker 3: I think in a lot of ways it's saying it
22:47
Speaker 3: is like, yes, I've fallen into a lot of things,
22:49
Speaker 3: but a big thing is I've always I make sure
22:51
Speaker 3: that I'm always aware and present for when these things
22:55
Speaker 3: come up, because a lot of times, you know, big
22:57
Speaker 3: opportunities are just little Tony blips you have to grab
23:00
Speaker 3: when they're there.
23:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And this makes sense. It is a kind
23:03
Speaker 1: of So the guy's a really good writer. We should
23:06
Speaker 1: also point that out because he is not really He's
23:14
Speaker 1: not really a politician. He's much more of a litigator.
23:19
Speaker 1: He's a man of the law, right, And he is
23:23
Speaker 1: one of those rare exceptions who doesn't originally dream of
23:27
Speaker 1: being president. He doesn't necessarily want those mountain peaks with
23:31
Speaker 1: those high and dangerous wins. He's okay being a federal
23:35
Speaker 1: circuit judge, and he makes it pretty early, thirty four
23:38
Speaker 1: years old. His big dream is to be a member
23:42
Speaker 1: of the Supreme Court. Now, for everybody outside of the
23:45
Speaker 1: United States, although this is a representative democracy, the ultimate
23:51
Speaker 1: law of the land is nine people who are dressed
23:55
Speaker 1: just like ring Braiths from Lord of the Rings, and
23:58
Speaker 1: they are in office until they decide to quit. They
24:03
Speaker 1: are not directly elected by the public, and their opinions
24:07
Speaker 1: are ultimately the ones that count. Yeah, literal gospel. It's
24:12
Speaker 1: pretty wild. Not a huge fan.
24:15
Speaker 2: One of the biggest contributions a president can make, long lasting,
24:20
Speaker 2: well beyond their tenure in the White House, is appointment
24:24
Speaker 2: of these ring rings that you're talking about.
24:27
Speaker 1: I know, you're right, then would want that instead of
24:33
Speaker 1: the presidency.
24:34
Speaker 2: Well, that's right, And he also can't, you know, I mean,
24:35
Speaker 2: obviously a lot of presidents have a background in law,
24:38
Speaker 2: but he was really that was kind of his ultimate
24:41
Speaker 2: goal there.
24:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, and his rise in politics is a great note
24:46
Speaker 1: here was not a result of the glad handing of elections.
24:50
Speaker 1: It was more his acumen and his competence at various
24:57
Speaker 1: political positions or legal position. And then President McKinley appointed
25:03
Speaker 1: him as the Chief Civil Administrator to the Philippines, which
25:07
Speaker 1: by the way, the US was doing a real number
25:10
Speaker 1: on back in the day, and he was not like
25:15
Speaker 1: it wasn't like a Smedley Butler Hadi situation. Taft was
25:20
Speaker 1: actually helping improve the infrastructure of the country. And then
25:25
Speaker 1: he becomes Teddy Roosevelt's Secretary of War. Obviously, we did
25:31
Speaker 1: some rebranding over the decades. We call it Defense now
25:37
Speaker 1: Department of Defense.
25:38
Speaker 2: Ben quick Aside, you've made your positions clear on both
25:41
Speaker 2: the names Quincy and Alfonso. Where do you fall in
25:44
Speaker 2: the name Smedley.
25:46
Speaker 1: There's one guy that I respect with the name Smedley,
25:49
Speaker 1: and I'm still on the fence about him. What about you?
25:53
Speaker 2: When I hear Smedley, I think of something gross.
25:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds there's something snively about it.
26:01
Speaker 2: Yes, snidely. Whiplash's exactly. Yeah, get out of my head.
26:06
Speaker 2: That's it off myc though I always think of Smegma.
26:10
Speaker 1: No, let's stuck it in.
26:11
Speaker 2: Okay, well, okay, you don't know what that is, don't
26:15
Speaker 2: look it up.
26:17
Speaker 3: That just sank some of the scores and our internal
26:19
Speaker 3: rating systems.
26:21
Speaker 2: Sorry, guys, it's not a cool name. It's just something
26:25
Speaker 2: about it runed me the wrong way.
26:27
Speaker 1: But he was an absolute pill who probably saved the
26:30
Speaker 1: American experiment exactly. No important chess tattoo, I know way
26:35
Speaker 1: too much of what guy of an eagle? My guy? Hey? Okay?
26:41
Speaker 2: Did he have like a warship tattooed on his bicep too?
26:44
Speaker 2: That would come to life when he ate spinach. Also,
26:46
Speaker 2: was it a bald eagle or just an eagle?
26:48
Speaker 1: He didn't let people see his back, and uh I
26:51
Speaker 1: think he I think when he got tatted up it was,
26:54
Speaker 1: oh gosh, I'd have to go back to We did
26:57
Speaker 1: a show with Schoolly Humans called Let's Start a Coup
27:00
Speaker 1: where you can learn all about Spentley Butler and hear
27:04
Speaker 1: some Saturday Night live re enactments of his life.
27:10
Speaker 2: Guys, I've been playing I think I've mentioned on the
27:12
Speaker 2: podcast before A big fan of this board game called
27:15
Speaker 2: Wingspan that teaches you all about different birds. It's just
27:17
Speaker 2: a really fun game. And it's really changed my relationship
27:20
Speaker 2: with our fine feathered friends for the better. But one
27:24
Speaker 2: little fun fact that gets dropped a lot whenever you
27:26
Speaker 2: play the bald eagle card. And you may know part
27:29
Speaker 2: of this, maybe not all of it. Ben Franklin was
27:31
Speaker 2: not a fan of the idea of the bald eagle
27:33
Speaker 2: as the national bird. He wanted preferring the turkey. But
27:36
Speaker 2: he wasn't a fan because of a trait that bald
27:40
Speaker 2: eagles have. They are known for stealing fish. Uh huh yeah,
27:45
Speaker 2: though in retrospect that's pretty American.
27:48
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, man, you guys don't steal fish. I stole
27:51
Speaker 1: some fish earlier today we pushed off recording and I
27:54
Speaker 1: saw some you know, I saw a kid with some fish,
27:56
Speaker 1: and then a kid with some candy. And I took
27:58
Speaker 1: the fish fish more nourishing than candy. I did. No,
28:02
Speaker 1: I did get a bagel, though that part is true.
28:05
Speaker 1: It was not from a child. It was from an adult.
28:08
Speaker 1: Was it a locks big of course, it was like,
28:10
Speaker 1: come on, man, you know me, welcome and so our
28:20
Speaker 1: pal taft is off is kind of seen as a
28:27
Speaker 1: compromise candidate, which happens increasingly in the United States at
28:33
Speaker 1: all levels of politics. People who consider themselves more on
28:37
Speaker 1: the liberal side of ideology at the time say that, look,
28:42
Speaker 1: this guy is going to continue a lot of Teddy
28:44
Speaker 1: Roosevelt's liberal policies, and people who identify themselves more with
28:49
Speaker 1: conservative ideology say, hey, this guy will get rid of
28:55
Speaker 1: all those liberal policies we hate. So everybody votes for
28:58
Speaker 1: him for completely contradictory reasons, and as a result of course,
29:04
Speaker 1: Kobeyashi Maru again, there is no perfect president. Everybody ends
29:09
Speaker 1: up super peeved with him. Then they're like, come on, man,
29:14
Speaker 1: you didn't do all the stuff that I told myself
29:16
Speaker 1: you would do.
29:17
Speaker 2: However, he definitely swung a little closer to the conservatives viewpoints,
29:23
Speaker 2: which really p owed the former President Roosevelt, who didn't
29:27
Speaker 2: win his party's primary, since the Conservatives were the larger
29:30
Speaker 2: portion of the party and they already didn't like Teddy,
29:33
Speaker 2: so they decided to go with Taft caused him to
29:36
Speaker 2: create his own political party and split the vote and
29:39
Speaker 2: gave the presidency to a pretty awful guy considered by many,
29:44
Speaker 2: including Max Williams, to be one of, if not the
29:48
Speaker 2: worst president of the nineteen hundreds, and who was definitely
29:52
Speaker 2: proven to be have been a member of the Ku
29:55
Speaker 2: Klux klam.
29:56
Speaker 1: Oh that's a shame. Look at Mitchell and Webb, folks.
30:01
Speaker 1: They have an amazing sketch about the Ku Klux Klan
30:04
Speaker 1: the Batties. No, oh, I'll send it together.
30:09
Speaker 3: I will say Joe Wilson did do a lot of
30:11
Speaker 3: actually really good things in his presidency. Will send this unfortunately,
30:16
Speaker 3: because I want to just hate him. He's polarizing, as
30:20
Speaker 3: you can only do really good and really bad. He
30:22
Speaker 3: couldn't do in the middle.
30:23
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I mean it's like, you know, it's the
30:26
Speaker 1: joke we have in academia about philosophy students or ethics students.
30:33
Speaker 1: Philosophy students are either super tame or they're absolute wild cards.
30:39
Speaker 1: There is no middle ground. They're just the extreme ends
30:43
Speaker 1: of the Bell curve. Shout out to everyone with a
30:46
Speaker 1: philosophy degree. And you would love to hang with Taft
30:51
Speaker 1: because Taft was never fond of the somewhat I would say,
30:57
Speaker 1: ethically fraudulent game of politics. He wanted to be a
31:02
Speaker 1: nerd like us, and so when he left the White House,
31:06
Speaker 1: which you know, he kind of I feel like he
31:09
Speaker 1: I feel like he rolled his eyes when he became
31:12
Speaker 1: president and he said all right, fine, and he was
31:16
Speaker 1: excited to leave. So back to our friends of Britannica.
31:19
Speaker 1: When Taft gets out of the White House, he survives,
31:23
Speaker 1: he's not assassinated, blah blah blah. He returns to his
31:27
Speaker 1: alma mater. He goes back to Yale and he becomes
31:30
Speaker 1: a professor of constitutional law, which is a really cool position,
31:35
Speaker 1: especially in an ivy league like that and the US,
31:40
Speaker 1: because all things exist together and nothing occurs in a vacuum.
31:43
Speaker 1: The US enters World War One and Taft makes the
31:48
Speaker 1: decision to serve in policy advisory positions, so he's part
31:54
Speaker 1: of the National War Labor Board, and then he also
31:58
Speaker 1: pushes and constitutional law botens often do this. He pushes
32:04
Speaker 1: for tighter international relations. So he's a big proponent of
32:09
Speaker 1: the League of Nations. And the party that he was
32:14
Speaker 1: down with, his political gang, was isolationist. They didn't like
32:18
Speaker 1: the idea of the League of Nations, and as history
32:21
Speaker 1: would prove, the League of Nations was largely ineffective. The
32:26
Speaker 1: most important thing it did was to establish a precedent
32:30
Speaker 1: for the United Nations, which is still you know, doing
32:34
Speaker 1: its best. That's about all they can do.
32:37
Speaker 2: The Unit I appreciate the organization, and I think it
32:41
Speaker 2: represents a lot of good stuff, but unfortunately it is
32:44
Speaker 2: often a little bit toothless.
32:46
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I put that pause in there a little
32:48
Speaker 1: starkily on fampus.
32:50
Speaker 2: But no, no, you said it right, diplomatically, doing the
32:54
Speaker 2: best they can. I get it now. No, we do
32:57
Speaker 2: have a good moment here, whether taftause. Remember we said
33:02
Speaker 2: the way that the way that some of us dreamed
33:06
Speaker 2: being the first werewolf astronaut on the moon. Taft had
33:10
Speaker 2: a boyhood dream, and his boyhood dream was Scotus to
33:13
Speaker 2: become a member of the Supreme Court. I think we
33:17
Speaker 2: have a happy ending for this episode.
33:19
Speaker 1: That's right.
33:20
Speaker 2: In nineteen twenty one, Tast's boyhood dream of becoming a
33:23
Speaker 2: Supreme Court of Justice did in fact come true.
33:27
Speaker 1: In fact, exceeded his childhood dreams.
33:31
Speaker 2: In fact, not only was he a justice, he was
33:33
Speaker 2: appointed in nineteen twenty one by President Warren G. Harding,
33:39
Speaker 2: not of the regulators, regulators, writers, is roughriterers?
33:42
Speaker 1: No, is that different? It's different anyway. Warren G.
33:45
Speaker 2: Harding appointed Taft chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court,
33:51
Speaker 2: launching what was probably the happiest time in Taff's long
33:54
Speaker 2: career being a public service. He took steps to improve
33:58
Speaker 2: the efficiency of the Supreme Court, which had lagged behind,
34:03
Speaker 2: as we know oftentimes legislation and lawmaking can They had
34:09
Speaker 2: not been doing their due diligence in their work, and
34:12
Speaker 2: he was out to change that. His influence was incredibly
34:17
Speaker 2: decisive in making sure the Judges Act of nineteen twenty
34:22
Speaker 2: five got passed, which gave the significant power to the
34:26
Speaker 2: Supreme Court in discretion in choosing its cases, so that
34:30
Speaker 2: it could focus more attention on bigger picture constitutional questions
34:34
Speaker 2: and not get caught up in like the minutia of
34:37
Speaker 2: stuff that maybe had no business being presented to the
34:39
Speaker 2: Supreme Court. So that's positive, whatever your take on the
34:43
Speaker 2: Court itself might.
34:44
Speaker 1: Be, Yeah, because pre nineteen twenty five, they were kind
34:47
Speaker 1: of not even kind of they were restricted in their
34:52
Speaker 1: own agency, so they would get cases through a certain
34:56
Speaker 1: process and they didn't have the same lot of or
35:00
Speaker 1: as you said, no discretion in choosing their cases. And again,
35:06
Speaker 1: you know, it's always been a small number of people,
35:08
Speaker 1: so their time and their expertise is limited. Was he
35:13
Speaker 1: was considered remind me of this. He was considered pretty
35:16
Speaker 1: conservative right as a scotis.
35:19
Speaker 2: I do believe, so, yeah, he is judicial philosophy definitely
35:26
Speaker 2: leaned in that direction. However, tasked, as I think is
35:31
Speaker 2: super important for any judge, let alone a Supreme Court justice.
35:36
Speaker 2: Wasn't like entirely said in his ways. He was not
35:39
Speaker 2: ideologically rigid. He was willing to look at both sides
35:45
Speaker 2: and come to a consensus that was based on facts
35:49
Speaker 2: rather than his own personal beliefs. Although you know, we
35:52
Speaker 2: know it's it's hard to separate those out sometimes, but
35:56
Speaker 2: credit where credit is due, especially.
35:57
Speaker 1: With his workers' rights opinions right.
36:00
Speaker 2: His approval of court injunctions, for example, was limited by
36:04
Speaker 2: his insistence that injunctions could not be employed to interfere
36:07
Speaker 2: with the rights of workers to organize and strike. So yeah, conservative,
36:12
Speaker 2: but relatively open minded and willing to do the work.
36:17
Speaker 2: So kind of like Calvin Coolidge, but even cooler. That's
36:21
Speaker 2: max joke, but it holds true here.
36:24
Speaker 1: It was pretty good. We we also have to acknowledge,
36:28
Speaker 1: you know, perhaps unfairly in American discourse, Taft is often
36:33
Speaker 1: not remembered for his competence and his integrity as a
36:41
Speaker 1: member of the judiciary. He's often remembered for his lifelong
36:45
Speaker 1: battle with certain aspects of his health, and he had
36:50
Speaker 1: heart disease and this forced him to voluntarily resign from
36:56
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court on February third, nineteen thirty. And he
37:00
Speaker 1: was making the right decision for his health. At this point,
37:03
Speaker 1: he had already shed one hundred pounds, he was walking
37:07
Speaker 1: three miles a day. Unfortunately, due to the heart disease.
37:12
Speaker 1: He passed away on March eighth in nineteen thirty, just
37:16
Speaker 1: like the next month. He was seventy two years old.
37:20
Speaker 1: But what an astonishing Postpotus career. And we've seen Adams,
37:26
Speaker 1: We've seen Carter, We've seen taff There are more stories.
37:29
Speaker 1: We're not going to get to them all. Shout out
37:31
Speaker 1: to former President Barack Obama, who is now a bit
37:36
Speaker 1: of an internet DJ. He's got a summer playlist that
37:40
Speaker 1: comes out.
37:40
Speaker 2: It's pretty good man, guys, he's got pretty good taste. Yeah.
37:44
Speaker 1: When I first heard it, and no no offense, Barrock.
37:48
Speaker 1: When I first heard it, I thought, come on, man,
37:50
Speaker 1: did you pick these or did your daughters tell you
37:53
Speaker 1: what to put on the playlist? He was always dropping
37:56
Speaker 1: good rex even when he was president.
37:58
Speaker 2: I'm a big shout out to town hero musician artist
38:02
Speaker 2: Fay Webster, who made one of the former president's.
38:07
Speaker 1: Summer playlists Pretty sweet.
38:09
Speaker 2: Fay Wester is like this incredibly lovely, almost like Dusty
38:12
Speaker 2: Springfield as kind of like R and B slash.
38:16
Speaker 1: I don't know.
38:17
Speaker 2: It's got a groove to it. She's got a lovely voice,
38:19
Speaker 2: but also is like buddies with all of the Atlanta
38:22
Speaker 2: rappers because her background was like in photography where she
38:25
Speaker 2: would do like these photo shoots. Is really tight with
38:27
Speaker 2: Lil YACHTI, who appeared at her recent performance here in
38:31
Speaker 2: Atlanta that my kid went to.
38:32
Speaker 1: Pretty cool and big. Big shout out too to former
38:36
Speaker 1: President Obama for his Christmas playlist and for his workout
38:40
Speaker 1: playlist and for his film business, his production company Higher Ground.
38:46
Speaker 1: He and his spouse Michelle, who obviously runs the joint,
38:49
Speaker 1: have produced seventeen movies and TV shows so far. Please
38:56
Speaker 1: mister Obama, missus Obama, if you're listening, boy, howdy, do
39:00
Speaker 1: we have some pitches for you all? Just give us
39:04
Speaker 1: give us a tight five minutes. We'll bring our pal
39:07
Speaker 1: aj Bahamas Jacobs. We got some stuff we know you
39:12
Speaker 1: will love. The last thing we wanted in with real
39:15
Speaker 1: quick because I know we got to wrap it up.
39:17
Speaker 1: We didn't get to it in our conversation about Adams.
39:20
Speaker 1: But I have a question for you. All right, Adams Family, right,
39:24
Speaker 1: the TV show Adams Family based off.
39:27
Speaker 2: All right, don't forget about the masterpiece film series from
39:29
Speaker 2: the nineties, the Adams Family and Adams Family Values.
39:32
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, good note and based on the comic strip.
39:35
Speaker 1: Right in the Adams Family, many of the family members
39:40
Speaker 1: are depicted as monsters or have supernatural entities of some sort.
39:47
Speaker 1: My question, then, is what kind of monster is Gomez Adams.
39:53
Speaker 1: I believe I know the answer. Well, I would argue
39:56
Speaker 1: he's a sexy beast, yes, yes, I agree with that.
40:00
Speaker 1: I would also argue that he is his monstrosity is
40:07
Speaker 1: business tycoon. There you go. That's that's what makes him monstrous,
40:11
Speaker 1: is that he is a unhinged konaire.
40:16
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's when I never really clocked that. That's
40:20
Speaker 2: you know, and funny you say that, like, really, the
40:22
Speaker 2: only monsters in the crew were Lurch, who was kind
40:25
Speaker 2: of a Frankenstein asque creature, the hairy one that is
40:30
Speaker 2: cousin it, and the severed hand. But Wednesday is not
40:33
Speaker 2: a monster, and Martitia is just a he's kind of
40:37
Speaker 2: a vampire, kind of a vampire, yeah clear, but she
40:40
Speaker 2: does it suck blood. They don't really harm people. They
40:43
Speaker 2: just talk about spooky stuff. They never actually do anything.
40:46
Speaker 1: They're like Elvira level spook. That's right, you know what
40:49
Speaker 1: I mean, just like creepy stuff.
40:51
Speaker 3: Ben, you said Elvira, Elvira, Vampira better than al Vira.
40:55
Speaker 3: Alvira's a knockoff.
40:57
Speaker 1: Well better because Vampire is an a dude.
41:01
Speaker 3: And you also listened to the Federal episode about Vampiro.
41:05
Speaker 2: Also and watch the incredible Such a Bumber to see
41:07
Speaker 2: his career drop off the way it has Tim Burton
41:10
Speaker 2: movie ed Wood, which also features Vampire.
41:13
Speaker 1: And we are clearly trending into the most wonderful time
41:18
Speaker 1: of the year, the spooky season. So thank you for
41:22
Speaker 1: tuning into our series on post presidential careers. We hope
41:26
Speaker 1: you enjoyed it. We have many more presidents to get to.
41:29
Speaker 1: The journey continues in the meantime. Folks, First, thanks to
41:33
Speaker 1: our research associates super producer mister Max Williams. Secondly, and
41:37
Speaker 1: perhaps even more importantly, log onto ridiculous historians and let
41:42
Speaker 1: us know your favorite Halloween traditions, films, and costumes. Ooh,
41:47
Speaker 1: and leave us a happy Halloween.
41:48
Speaker 2: Great review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
41:52
Speaker 2: That would warm our demonic little hearts.
41:55
Speaker 1: Yes, beautiful, Ah, that was very well done. Also big
41:58
Speaker 1: big Speaking of well done, big big thing thanks to
42:00
Speaker 1: our composer Alex Williams, who was doing well and on
42:04
Speaker 1: his travels and getting super into improv. Yesayd Alex got
42:08
Speaker 1: your back.
42:09
Speaker 2: Huge thanks to superproducer Max Williams who composed this banging
42:14
Speaker 2: research Dotsier as well as Chris Fraciotis and Eves Jeff
42:19
Speaker 2: cots Here in Spirit.
42:20
Speaker 1: Gabe Lusier, Rachel, Big Spinach, Lance, our pals over at
42:25
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime. That's Zarin, Elizabeth and Dave. We'll get the
42:31
Speaker 1: nicknames later. For now, folks, we just want to thank
42:35
Speaker 1: you for tuning in, and no thank you. I think
42:38
Speaker 1: a lot of our jokes landed in this week. I
42:40
Speaker 1: hope so they landed somewhere, Ben, they landed somewhere. Let's
42:43
Speaker 1: see you next time, folks.
42:51
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
42:55
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.