MOUNT RUSHMORE - REVISED

This morning on Morning Joe (June 6, 2012) there was a discussion of what presidents belong at Mount Rushmore.  Much to my surprise, several historians were will to replace the whole lot!  As for me, I would definitely keep Washington and Lincoln. In fact, Washington looks better all the time in that on top of everything else his views on slavery evolved and he planned to have his slaves released upon the death of his wife Martha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_and_slavery).  To do this, you had to compile funds for them so that they would not be a drag on society, and he had to do this in secret or he might have been assassinated. Of course, American history, and maybe global history, would be a lot different if it wasn't for Lincoln.

I do think Teddy Roosevelt could be replaced and possibly Jefferson.  Teddy could easily be replaced by his 5th cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) who ended up being the father of modern America.

Thomas Jefferson is noted as writing the Declaration of Independence and buying the Louisiana Purchase though constitutionally there was no provision to do this.  I find it interesting that he is a hero to Democrats who have annual Jefferson-Jackson Day celebrations and to conservatives who say they are Jeffersonian conservatives.  Jefferson did believe in states rights.  Jefferson's record on slavery is mixed at best (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_slavery).  He did allow two of his four children by Sally Heming to "escape" and freed the other two upon his death along with a few others, but, oddly did not free Sally Heming (though essentially his daughter did, i.e. gave Sally her "time.").  On the other hand he would not recognize Haiti.  But if you were going to replace Jefferson, who would you replace him with?

Surprisingly to me there are those historians who would say Ronald Reagan.  As I have written elsewhere, I have never experienced the Reagan mystique.*  He is credited with being an advocate of small government though he increased the size the government curing his presidential tenure.  For example he is the only president to increase the number of Federal employees between Johnson and Obama.  He is credited with being a budget balancer though he never came close to balancing the budget.  But his spiritual appeal has captured many, but I would not choose him for Mount Rushmore.  I guess I would leave Thomas Jefferson there, but there is a part of me that is attracted to Lyndon Johnson.  To do this you have to forgive him for the Vietnam war, but Johnson's domestic accomplishments are so great that he could be deserving.  If one is going to forgive Jefferson's record on slavery then one might be able to forgive Johnson's record on Viet Nam.

* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/02/ronald-reagan.html,
http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/10/ronald-reagan-further-comments.html,
http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2012/05/land-mines-in-way-of-becoming-great.html

Note added July 11, 2012:  After thinking this over, I have decided that we shouldn't replace any of those already on Mount Rushmore, but we could add a couple.  After all in more than a hundred years one would hope we have had a couple of outstanding presidents.  So I would add FDR and maybe Lyndon Johnson.  On Morning Joe, Doris Kearns Godwin suggested Johnson's face be in profile to honor his domestic achievements, but not his foreign policy debacle.