R&I – TxPaT ***
Opinion by Kate Andersen Brower
Updated 4:08 PM ET, Mon January 18, 2021
(CNN)Understandably lost in the morass of the horrifying things that have happened leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration is something that did not happen. Melania Trump will become the first modern first lady not to invite the woman who will replace her to the White House for a walk-through of the private living quarters on the second and third floors.
From Bess Truman and Mamie Eisenhower’s meeting, to the visit Laura Bush hosted where Jenna and Barbara Bush showed Sasha and Malia Obama how to slide down the banister in the Residence, to the visit where Michelle Obama invited Melania Trump even after Donald Trump had questioned her husband’s citizenship, this tradition has long been one of the first lady’s many unwritten obligations. And Melania Trump has discarded it.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that Melania Trump has flouted a social norm of her position. Every one-term president — and his wife — have felt the sting of defeat, but unlike her husband, none of them have refused to accept the election results. Betty Ford was furious when her husband lost his 1976 race to Jimmy Carter. “No matter who follows you, you know they didn’t deserve to be there,” she once said. Scathing, yes, but brutally honest. Ford canceled the tour she was to give to Rosalynn Carter twice, and when it finally did take place, Carter said she received a “brief, but cordial” walk-through. The important thing, though, is that it happened.
Ceremony matters. Traditions matter. Our expectations about what’s normal and civil behavior in our society matters. The usually peaceful transfer of power happens once or twice a decade. Lady Bird Johnson called Inauguration Day “the great quadrennial American pageant,” and I agree. It’s a rare event when we’re reminded that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, and while a meeting over tea served on silver platters in the Residence between two powerful women married to presidents might seem quaint, that tradition is meaningful. It grounds us, knowing that two people who may have very little in common are acknowledging that something as momentous as the transfer of presidential power also touches the lives of real families not so unlike ours.
Continued
Carl Sagan
Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/18/opinions/melania-trump-first-lady-break-with-tradition-brower/index.html