JFK was jealous of how European monarchs had fancy medals and sashes to hand out, and wanted to do that, so he created the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a chintzy American knock-off, and its entire existence has confirmed the wisdom of why our republican tradition didn't have such a thing before. - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

andycraig.bsky.social • 55 days ago

JFK was jealous of how European monarchs had fancy medals and sashes to hand out, and wanted to do that, so he created the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a chintzy American knock-off, and its entire existence has confirmed the wisdom of why our republican tradition didn't have such a thing before.

Reposted from Kyle Griffin

President Biden just announced the newest recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Names include:

Hillary Clinton
José Andrés
Jane Goodall
George Soros
Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Bono
Fannie Lou Hammer
Bill Nye
George Romney
Denzel Washington
Anna Wintour

Comments

dmschmeyer.bsky.social•55 days ago

I, eeeeer uuuuh, wanna fancy bawble!

ebs.bsky.social•55 days ago

I assume ours are in the mail.

dmschmeyer.bsky.social•55 days ago

dirkvdberg68.bsky.social•55 days ago

And Trump degraded that medal by handing it out to obvious electiondeniers.

otiscampbell.bsky.social•55 days ago

He gave one to Sheldon Adelson's wife. Need we say more.

dirkvdberg68.bsky.social•54 days ago

Remembered that one right after typing. Indeed.

abbie4science.bsky.social•55 days ago

Anna Wintour? for what?

bginchi.bsky.social•55 days ago

Socialite, party thrower, ass-kisser.

wingfoot1618.bsky.social•55 days ago

Ugh, I knew the award was a joke! And any good vibes Bobby gave off are utterly neutralized by that dickwad offspring of his

miketolhurst.bsky.social•55 days ago

This seems right. MBEs still seem classier even though there isn't (really) an Empire anymore.

This was probably best left to civil society - some sort of freedom equivalent of a Nobel.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Right. You mention right up top in somebody's bio if they're a Nobel laureate, it's a serious honor that says a lot about who they are. Nobody is ever going to mention again the fact that Hillary Clinton got the presidential medal of freedom as if that's an important biographical detail.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

It's kind of a Tocqueville civil society thing, all our clubs and associations and such he remarked on. And it was always a thing for them, even more common back then, to vote to give some award or memento to people they wanted to honor. Much more in the spirit of a civic recognition by your peers.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

True even for a Nobel with a king doing the presentation ceremony, but explicitly presenting it on behalf of this private org where it's (mostly) chosen by recognized experts in their respective fields. It's not being awarded because the king wills it or even had any say in it.

emeritaprof.bsky.social•55 days ago

Sounds like a pretty good list

kejo.bsky.social•55 days ago

I don’t know how this correlates but the Oscars, Emmys, etc..were created by greedy studio bosses as a way to distract underpaid film/TV workers with a “shiny object” for their work, instead of paying them their worth in hard cash

kiwired.bsky.social•55 days ago

If there's anyone more likely to introduce actual titles to the US, I can't think of anyone more likely than administration.

And probably unofficially for sale.

marcellograz.bsky.social•55 days ago

Bono for….tax dodging?

pomwhisperer.bsky.social•55 days ago

Note: José Andrés deserves ALL the medals and honors there are.

rastapackermon.bsky.social•55 days ago

Goodall must have like 6 of these.

crs1.bsky.social•55 days ago

You misspelled Truman fyi

jm78mmm6.bsky.social•55 days ago

It does feel a bit ridiculous

mreschatologist.bsky.social•55 days ago

Jose Andres getting his with a note "Sorry again about blowing up your employees. :[ Thanks for being cool about it."

shawnisstilltired.bsky.social•55 days ago

I could forgive Trump a lot if he undid Wilson’s bastardization of the State of the Union address.

capitalistfool.bsky.social•55 days ago

Forgo being the center of national attention for two hours? The most unlikely thing he'd ever do.

shawnisstilltired.bsky.social•55 days ago

It would show some real growth 😂

octaviuz.bsky.social•55 days ago

Sending a letter rather than a speech from the throne?

shawnisstilltired.bsky.social•55 days ago

Exactly

themjl.bsky.social•55 days ago

IMO all those Medals kind of flirt with constitutionality (the “no titles” part).

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Very much they were seen as closely associated sorts of things which is why we didn't do them back when the "no nobility" stuff was something they still thought about and were cautious towards. Same reason people freaked out at Washington... even him!... doing the Society of the Cincinnati.

eigerjoch.bsky.social•55 days ago

I didn’t know that. Everyone made fun of Pres Nixon for trying to have White House staff in European style crazy uniforms, but that surely was no worse :)

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Very much in the same vein and equally deserving of mockery.

eigerjoch.bsky.social•55 days ago

If I recall right the uniforms lasted all of days due to the amount of sniggering provoked

teejaykay.bsky.social•55 days ago

napoleon-the-pig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Something I just learned a few years ago is because they thought it was inconsistent with republicanism and citizen service Congress for a long time did not grant full generalships (Washington and Grant were Major Gen., 2 stars) and they simply didn't appoint Admirals, Commadore being the highest.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Yes it's also why we've never had field marshals, and they had to create a novel "five-star general" rank to give Eisenhower and the rest equal rank to Allied counterparts they were being given command over.

numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net•55 days ago

Though of course all those five stars were junior to the (then) one and only General of the Armies of the United States.

napoleon-the-pig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Well, Washington is a General of the Armies in addition to Pershing since they kept bumping his rank posthumously so he never had anyone above him

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

I forget the details but I think they noticed that and did it some decades later.

numenor.reunitedkingdoms.net•55 days ago

Yes, Washington was promoted to catch up in 1976 and Grant in April, 2024. (Which is why I wrote “then” ;-) )

napoleon-the-pig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Exactly.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

To be fair, the other reason was everyone recognized it would be really awkward to make George C. Marshall "Marshal Marshall"

anotherchuck.bsky.social•55 days ago

It worked for Major Major Major Major

eubanksengineeringresearch.com•54 days ago

🤣 🤣 🤣

napoleon-the-pig.bsky.social•55 days ago

True? I read a bio of him a couple years ago and I don't think they mentioned that.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

I think it was more for the historic American tradition reasons but I've seen it mentioned as something that was at least joked about.

juniemo2.bsky.social•55 days ago

I hate to tell ya but medals were around here in the US for decades before JFK. AND, just so you know, JFK was a Democrat so there's that.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Presidents are not the fount of honor, do not have regal dignity, and we do not have noble orders. It comes across as a politician handing out cheap trinkets to friends and allies because that's exactly what it is. It's trying to bestow what our entire system of government deliberately denies POTUS.

pja.bsky.social•55 days ago

To be clear, monarchs do not have regal dignity either

realityred.bsky.social•55 days ago

Rush Limbaugh really exposed the lie.

dirtside.bsky.social•55 days ago

"fount of honor" "regal dignity" "noble orders" I mean those are all just as much made-up cosplay as the PMOF

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

They're worse which is why we don't do them, exactly those things are dumb.

lucywelshie.bsky.social•55 days ago

And King “I want to be your tampon” Charles does have that gravitas?

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Up to them if they want to pretend as much. To the degree it doesn't even work for them is all the more reason for us not to emulate it.

missmoonlight.bsky.social•55 days ago

This explains why many people who actually deserve such recognition never got it or even been considered for it and why some randos I've never heard of have.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

On the much rarer occasions when we did want to bestow a suitable national honor, we did it in republican form: a gold medal voted by Congress, given by the deliberative decision of the people's representatives, as such the organ closest to our true sovereign, not at the whim of one officeholder.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Deep tangent, but this is also why congressional gold medal (few exceptions) is "non-portable." Doesn't go around your neck, you don't parade around wearing it. It's recognition of something you did, not a special dignity for you as a person. You're still just a plain old citizen like everyone else.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Granted this is all obscure history and symbolic details nobody really cares about now. But there is a deeply encoded traditional symbolism for how republican honors differ from monarchist / nobility honors, and we used to be conscious of that in the US, and JFK screwed it up, and that annoys me.

owenwmichael.bsky.social•54 days ago

I think it is worth noting that America is a bit of an outlier on this amongst republican systems, both before and after

owenwmichael.bsky.social•54 days ago

Though not as much as on, say, "the President doesn't have a style"

surcomplicated.bsky.social•55 days ago

Of course the princeling president is the one who did that.

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

"Camelot!" In these here United States! Harrumph.

alexsaysstuff.bsky.social•55 days ago

Always fun to see the three types of recipients:
- Deserving people who have actually achieved something of significance recently
- Political allies of the president
- Pop culture figures who the president thinks are kinda cool

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

And then at the ceremony you get this weird lineup of Respected Scientist Who Made Major Breakthrough, Random Old Politician in Retirement, and Singer With Six Grammys.

heavenlyfodder.bsky.social•55 days ago

Nobody has regal dignity

andycraig.bsky.social•55 days ago

Correct, and in this country that's supposed to be our official position and civic tradition.

thedanadecker.bsky.social•55 days ago

George Romney?

So, ... it can be awarded posthumously?

How come Maimonides isn't on the list?

bornwithatail.bsky.social•55 days ago

fucking Bono 🙄