14. Update Our Public Symbols

A Plan to Renew the Promise of American Life, Plank 14

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Plank 14. Update our public symbols

Specific Recommendations

14.1. To increase voter turnout, hold federal elections on the second Monday in May instead of the first week of November and make Election Day a federal holiday.

14.2. Convene Congress on June 1st instead of January 3rd (which will eliminate congressional lame-duck sessions) and inaugurate the president on July 1st instead of January 20th (which will shorten presidential transitions).

14.3. To simplify federal budgeting, begin the federal fiscal year on January 1st instead of October 1st.

14.4. Update the ten federal holidays, and the images on United States coins and currency, to celebrate American principles and achievements.

Comments

This plank is primarily about two things: our public calendar and our public symbols. This may seem trivial, compared to the rest of this plan. But surely it’s not unimportant. Common symbols have a common meaning. They help us remember who we are. They can inspire us to be our best. These recommendations are non-essential, but I believe they’d be beneficial.

Fiscal Year

Let’s synchronize the federal fiscal and tax years with the calendar year. Just start everything on January 1st. This is not a radical idea. Congress has twice moved the start of the fiscal year. In 1843, it moved it from January 1 to July 1. In 1976, it moved it again, from July 1 to October 1. (And yet it still can’t get its budget work done on time.) Let’s just go back to what the founders did.

Election Day

We have universal adult suffrage, yet half of voters typically don’t bother to vote. In the nineteenth century, we had a more restricted franchise and average voter turnout was very high. Does that mean we should restrict the franchise? No. Now, personally, I have my doubts about the wisdom of letting everyone who breathes have access to the ballot. But I’m realistic enough to know that we’re never going to restrict the franchise in any significant way. What we can do is make a virtue of necessity and end all the nonsense talk about ‘voter suppression’ and so on. Let’s remove all unreasonable barriers to voting, to reduce the share of the electorate who don’t bother to participate. I would not make voting compulsory like in Australia. But I would move Election Day to a warmer time of year and make it a federal holiday. I would also have it coincide with (my proposed) Flag Day, on the second Monday in May — a beautiful time of year.

A benefit of making Election Day a federal holiday, and during a mild-weather time of year, is that it would weaken the case for early voting, which, as the reader will recall, we minimize under the ballot integrity plank, and vote-by-mail schemes, which we abolish.

Inauguration Day

As a logical consequence of moving election day to mid-May, we would of course need to move the day on which federal officers are sworn in. I propose that each year Congress ordinarily convene on June 1st instead of January 3rd and that after each presidential election the president and vice president be sworn in on July 1st instead of January 20th. This requires a constitutional amendment.

Elections would be held in mid-May. The transition time between elections and swearings-in would shrink from the current nine or ten weeks to just two or three. Lame-duck congressional sessions, which nobody likes except losers and lobbyists, would be a thing of the past. /1

Federal Holidays

Reforming the calendar would ideally include a refresh of our current federal holiday calendar. First, we can spread them more evenly over the year. And second, we can refocus them on things that should unite us.

Let’s start with the focus. We have federal holidays to honor workers, veterans, and fallen defenders, but none to honor first responders or that most under-appreciated group, taxpayers. Why?

We have holidays to honor George Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Christopher Columbus, but none to honor Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, or James Madison, to name three of my favorites, and no holiday to honor any woman.

Meanwhile, Washington’s Birthday has quietly devolved into ‘Presidents’ Day. Seriously? Without an act of Congress, we’ve decided to celebrate Millard Fillmore, Richard Nixon, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump? And by the way, how is celebrating ‘all presidents’ different from celebrating the presidency as an institution? It has a whiff of monarchy.

Most people cannot tell you what Labor Day celebrates or explain the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Some are offended by Columbus Day. (I am not, but I can respect those who are.) And apart from July 4th, there is not a single federal holiday dedicated to America’s founding or principles. Surely we can do better.

Sometimes, I wonder whether we should have holidays celebrating our victories in the Civil War, the two World Wars, the Cold War — but then I think better of it. Wars tend to bring out the worst in people.

And that brings me to how the holidays are spread out over the year. Right now there are eleven federal holidays. /2 They’re somewhat clumped, with two in January and two in November. Five by law are observed on a Monday in order to maximize that delightful invention, the three-day weekend. Overall, this arrangement strikes me as not too bad. But I would spread it out more evenly, and update a few of the holidays to downplay the emphasis on individuals and groups and play up our principles and achievements.

Here’s what I propose. 1) Keep the five most traditional holidays, namely, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Independence Day, and Memorial Day, but eliminate the other five, namely, MLK Day, Washington’s Birthday, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day. 2) In their place, have five new days that celebrate important American achievements and symbols. My own suggestions would be: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Emancipation, Civil Rights, and the American Flag. Or to put it another way: the original Constitution, the first ten Amendments, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Fourteenth. You might come up with a different list. That’s fine. But surely we can agree it’s time to renovate the calendar.

Among other benefits, it would give us an additional three-day weekend.

The current calendar:

JAN 1 New Year’s Day Fixed
JAN Martin Luther King’s Birthday Last Monday
FEB Washington’s Birthday Third Monday
MAY Memorial Day Last Monday
JUL 4 Independence Day Fixed
JUN 19 Juneteenth Nat’l Indep. Day Fixed /2
SEP Labor Day First Monday
OCT Columbus Day Second Monday
NOV 11 Veterans Day Fixed
NOV Thanksgiving Day Fourth Thursday
DEC 25 Christmas Day Fixed

My proposed replacement:

JAN 1 New Year’s Day Fixed
FEB Civil Rights Day Third Monday
MAY Flag Day (Election Day) Second Monday
MAY Memorial Day Last Monday
JUN Emancipation Day (Juneteenth) Third Monday
JUL 4 Independence Day Fixed
SEP Constitution Day First Monday
OCT Bill of Rights Day Second Monday
NOV Thanksgiving Day Fourth Thursday
DEC 25 Christmas Day Fixed

Comparison:

Old: eleven holidays, with five Monday holidays.
New: ten holidays, with six Monday holidays.

Old: Calendar clumpy (two holidays in Jan., two in Nov., none in March, April, Aug.).
New: Calendar less clumpy (two holidays in May; still none in March, April, Aug.).

Old: Fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
New: Fiscal year starts Jan. 1.

Old: Election day is first Tuesday in Nov. (can fall on Nov. 2 through 8).
New: Election day is second Monday in May (can fall on May 8 through 14).

Old: Congress convenes Jan. 3.
New: Congress convenes June 1.

Old: President inaugurated Jan. 20.
New: President inaugurated July 1.

Old: Taxes due April 15.
New: No ‘tax day’ at all. (Because we abolish the income tax.)

Currency Images

Highlighting individuals on United States coins and currency smacks of monarchy. Traditionally the face on the currency belongs to the sovereign, for example, the Roman emperor or the British monarch. Since we’re a republic, not a monarchy, and since the American people are our sovereign, why not celebrate them? If we merely try to update the current pantheon, we get into inevitable fights over issues of political correctness, focusing on secondary qualities like sex and ethnicity and alleged victim status rather than true greatness. In lieu of faces on our national coins and bills, I would substitute inspiring symbols, patriotic scenes, important historical events, or inspiring quotations.

Speaking of quotations, one reason to put key quotations from the Constitution on our money is that politicians might actually read them.

Here’s what I’m suggesting. Instead of the current line-up of greenbacks:

$1 Washington
$2 Jefferson
$5 Lincoln
$10 Hamilton
$20 Jackson
$50 Grant
$100 Franklin

… why not:

$1 Washington crossing the Delaware
$2 Lexington and Concord (‘The shot heard round the world . . . ‘)
$5 Lincoln at Gettysburg (‘That government of the people, by the people, for the people might not perish . . . ‘)
$10 The Bill of Rights (‘Congress shall make no law . . . ‘)
$20 The Declaration of Independence (‘We hold these truths . . . ‘)
$50 Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial (‘I have a dream . . . ‘)
$100 The signing of the Constitution (‘A republic, if you can keep it.’)

And likewise with our coins. There are many possibilities. The important thing is to shift the emphasis away from monarchical imagery toward noble actions and ideals.

State of the Union

A pet peeve. Presidents should deliver their annual State of the Union addresses in writing, as all presidents did from Jefferson through Taft. The yearly ‘SOTU’ ritual is embarrassing and ludicrous, having devolved into a political infomercial. The press should refuse to televise these awful displays, invitees should refuse to attend them, and the public should refuse to watch them. (Harumph.)

Joint Sessions of Congress

Another pet peeve. I hate speeches by foreigners to joint sessions of Congress. The honor of addressing the elected representatives of the American people has been reduced, through frequency, into a photo op for any foreign VIP who happens to be passing through town. Only Lafayette has deserved such an honor, in my humble opinion — and maybe Churchill.

Pledge of Allegiance

I have an embarrassing confession to make. I am not a fan of the Pledge of Allegiance as currently written. It’s too chauvinist, too much like ‘My government, right or wrong!’ I have no problem with having an official pledge, but I think its recitation should be voluntary, and just as importantly I think the wording should be true to our principles. In place of the current wording, I would substitute the obvious replacement, namely, the ‘We hold these truths’ paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. It succinctly sets forth the first principles of our republic and distinguishes us from every other nation. And it’s one the most eloquent passages in the English language.

National Anthem

A final embarrassing confession. I hate ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ It has been our official national anthem since 1931. (‘Hail, Columbia,’ the song’s forgotten nineteenth-century competitor, is also pretty uninspiring.) In the place of Francis Scott Key’s celebration of our flag as seen by mortar-light, I would give this honor to ‘America the Beautiful.’ If you like, we could make this a second, alternative anthem. (We can have more than one.) ‘America the Beautiful’ is a better poem, with a better melody, than ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ and — the clincher for me — the damn thing is actually singable.

America, America
God shed his grace on thee
and crown thy good with brotherhood
from sea to shining sea

America, America
God mend thine every flaw
confirm thy soul in self-control
thy liberty in law

Notes

1/ Lame-duck sessions occur when an outgoing Congress, including its defeated members, passes last-minute laws that do not reflect the will of the most recent electorate.

2/ Update, June 17, 2021: Today a bill became law adding to the federal calendar the Emancipation Day holiday that I endorsed in 2013, although not under that name, but rather under the name, ‘Juneteenth National Independence Day.’ It celebrates the arrival of the news of emancipation in Texas in June of 1865. That brings the number of federal holidays to eleven, and I have updated this post accordingly. I am thrilled Juneteenth is now a federal holiday. I will confess I am less enamored of the phrase, ‘National Independence Day.’ Why? Because it sounds too much like our original Independence Day, July 4, and because it seems to suggest African Americans are a separate nation rather than full-fledged Americans. We are one people! This holiday, by the way, has existed informally among African Americans since 1865 and formally in a number of states since the 1930s, beginning with Texas, where it originated. There, it is called Emancipation Day and Juneteenth. ‘National Independence’ is not mentioned.

Constitutional Amendments

This plank requires one constitutional amendment, to update the starting date of federal terms of office. The date of federal elections can be changed by an act of Congress.

Benefits

Better aligns our civic symbols and celebrations with our principles and ideals.

Revised: June 17, 2021.

Published: June 21, 2013.

Author: Dean Clancy.