The thing that the turkey is getting pardoned /from/ is being Thanksgiving dinner, the thing the turkey is being pardoned for is a mystery. What are turkeys' crime that gives them the death penalty unless pardoned mr president? Is being a turkey an inherent crime? They were nearly the national bird!

The first unofficially pardoned turkey was actually just a turkey spared in private by President Lincoln in 1863. The bird had been gifted to the president's family for Thanksgiving dinner, but Lincoln's youngest son, Tad, had adopted the bird upon arrival. He asked his father to let the turkey live rather than become their Thanksgiving dinner, and Lincoln obliged. Tad named the bird Jack, and Jack would later be spared from Christmas dinner as well, through the use of a written reprieve note to Tad from his father. In this case, the turkey was spared because he had committed no crimes and a little boy loved him. Heartwarming.

The first public “sparing” of a Presidential Thanksgiving turkey was in 1947, by President Truman. This was not a pardon, but rather part of a lobbying campaign to reduce meat and egg consumption by introducing “meatless mondays” and “poultryless thursdays.” Truman publicly spared the turkeys but there’s no record of it going anywhere alive, and it was most likely not spared in private. This is OFTEN credited as the first “presidential pardon” but that’s just flat out wrong. The birds were not pardoned, pardoning was not a part of it, and likely the birds were not even spared, there was just a public advertising event about eating less/no meat/eggs.

The first non-presidential use of the term “pardoned” in reference to the Presidential Thanksgiving turkey would come later, in 1963, when Kennedy publicly spared his (live) gifted turkey. The press reported that the turkey had been “pardoned” by the president, even though no official presidential pardon had been given. The turkey would outlive Kennedy, who was assassinated 3 days later. Some people count this. I don’t. No crimes were committed here, Kennedy didn’t call it a pardon himself, though the turkey was actually spared.

The first presidential use of the word "pardoned" in reference to the Presidential Thanksgiving turkey was in 1987, as a deflection of Reagan's shady business. Reagan had sent his gifted turkeys to a petting zoo since 1982, but in ‘87, his administration was selling arms to Iran under the guise of rescuing US prisoners, and then using the funds to assist a right-wing terrorist group in Nicaragua (the Contras). During a press conference, when Reagan was being asked whether or not he would pardon two of the national security council members (Oliver North and John Poindexter) involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, Reagan deflected by joking that if that year’s (live) Thanksgiving turkey had not already been destined for a petting zoo, he “would have pardoned him,” as if that was a valid answer to the question. Again, no official pardon was issued, but at least crimes were committed, just not by the turkey.

Two years later, in 1989, President Bush would actually go through with the first official, public Presidential pardoning of a turkey. The official quote is: “But let me assure you, and this fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy—he’s presented a Presidential pardon as of right now.” The turkey was sent to live at a farm, as had been done for spared turkeys in the past. This altered the tradition of sparing a turkey either privately or publicly, and it became pardoning a turkey in a cutesy public event for good PR, despite no crimes having been committed by the turkey.

So, TL;DR: Presidential Thanksgiving turkeys were first spared by Abraham Lincoln, out of love for his son, who had great fondness of the innocent bird. Presidential Thanksgiving turkeys are now pardoned because Ronald Reagan joked about pardoning a turkey as a means of deflecting attention from his administration’s crimes, and George Bush thought a ceremony for publicly pardoning a turkey for crimes it didn’t commit sounded like a good idea.

Prior to 1873, the turkeys being gifted to the president were live (as near as I can tell). In 1873, a farmer from Rhode Island gifted a dressed turkey to the president, a tradition he would continue for the next 40 years, as the sole donator.

Just before that farmer's death in 1913, another farmer (from Kentucky this time) attempted to horn in on this tradition by presenting a dressed turkey from his own stock, touting that it was better. This seemingly broke the dam, as people realized they could compete for whose bird the president would choose as the best, and floods of people began gifting the president turkeys at thanksgiving. This went on for ten years and culminated in President Coolidge telling the public not to send turkeys.

Now, he said this because it was a ridiculous number of turkeys. However, the general public decided that "don't send turkeys" meant "send other things" and, beginning in 1925, Coolidge began receiving weird animals to eat for thanksgiving.

Including a live racoon.

Whom he named Rebecca, and kept as an official White House Pet.

There is now an official organization responsible for raising the presidential turkey- the National Turkey Federation. Hilariously, this organization, in charge of providing turkeys that are destined not to be eaten, has the website eatturkey.org. Each year they select 50-80 candidates for pardon, and spend months accustoming the birds to crowds, loud noises, and flashing lights, all the while whittling the candidates down to the two best behaved and well-feathered birds.

- Homeless girl who asked for my pronouns immediately and used them correctly every time

- Hispanic woman with a large family who just got her citizenship and is still working on her English

Neither of these women understood what they were supporting, they mostly saw ads that he was going to reduce grocery prices and voted based on that. Neither of them have consistent access to information or any relevant political education, nor the time, money, or energy to seek it out because they are focused on surviving.

They are like this because the GOP has meticulously engineered huge swaths of the country to be that way. It is not an inherent personal failing and it is very likely you would be the same had you grown up in the same circumstances.

We simply will not get anywhere if we are determined to not see people we hate as people. Humans can learn and grow, zombie sheep cannot.

People who work in DC for the government, what is the vibe?

Comment by u/Meduselde:

Resigned. We are generally very good about not discussing politics in the workplace but the vibe was obviously off. My more conservative colleagues who were happy Trump won were extremely respectful. There wasn't smug gloating and they were very obviously being cognizant of others' feelings even more than normal. It was extremely appreciated. Ultimately, we survived the first administration and will survive again. It's not necessarily Trump who was the problem last time, but his inexperienced senior appointees. The world isn't going to end nor do I feel democracy will crumble at his feet. It's just gonna be chaotic, and that's the worst part as a worker bee. At least with Biden we had consistent leadership and clear guidance, even if you didn't agree with it. Under Trump, your "yes man" says "no" and that's how you rotate through four SECDEFs. But as a sign of hope, it also means that even the most loyal DO say "no" sometimes, especially when businessmen are finally confronted with the realities of governance.

They chill out REAL quick on their dismantlement plans when they see the work these agencies do and what's at stake if they don't stand up for their people. It's easy to say you will dissolve or cut funding for something when you do not truly understand it. And as much as people say we can ALL be magically replaced with "yes men," even the most stone-hearted appointees recognize that the last thing you ever want is to lose the entirety of your skilled workforce. They learn it's best to get the skilled people to work towards their vision and not hire enthusiastic but stupid people to attempt the same. If they do, they risk looking inept themselves. You don't get skilled federal workers in a blue portion of the country to work for you by being a fucking Nazi. We're cranky and will make your life hell if you behave like that. I'm not talking about some sort of organized resistance movement because we feel like it. That's wrong. But just imagine hundreds of thousands pissed off at you. If that's the Deep State at work, then we aspire to be the quality of swampy Deep State your racist uncle thinks we are. If implementing dictatorship was that easy, Trump would have taken out every agency his last term and fired us all. I am actually extremely proud of the resiliency and checks and balances that the American federal government has in place to prevent most of the shit he says he can achieve by waving a magic executive wand. (He's done this once. He knows he can't. He just lets the majority of the population believe he can.) Us feds will make it, as we always have.

And we will live up to our oath to serve the Constitution, not a president. We serve every official of every party faithfully within the bounds of legalities and our oath. Working for administrations you may not like it's just a part of the job that we all recognize. Public servants at the federal level generally hold that extremely close to their heart. The ones that don't (I'm talking to YOU, WaPo "informants!") put us to shame. We're just tired, man. I can't believe it has already been four years since the last round. There's going to be some waves, no doubt, and some people definitely are going to be hurt at upper levels. But grab a Twisted Tea and buckle up. We'll at least pretend it's meant to be a roller coaster and ride it. TL;Dr Democracy is not going to die. But a drink and "thanks" would go a long way.

EDIT: Woah! I woke up this morning and am surprised by how much traction this got. I'm sad that this was the most positive thing some people had read. I'm sorry it's been that bad. I am not predicting outcomes. I have no idea how it's going to go. It's going to be bloody. But the hope I am trying to get across is that we are a resilient people and a group of (generally) good people. It will be okay, okay? The people that really make or break your daily life are those around you and your local government. Hold those around you close to your heart and always be kind. Everybody go outside, take a deep breath, eat something you love, and hug your grandma (even if she voted differently). The world is still turning and the sky is still blue. Being surrounded by spiraling anger on the internet only makes us the losers, not those we disagree with. The only thing we can do right now is wait. We have a few months to cool off! Enjoy your holidays!

EDIT 2: I think everybody has forgotten about this, but go check out the memorandum signed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the end of Trump's first term after January 6. The feds basically said "fuck that" when people were scared that the government was going to turn the military on them to help Trump in some way. While it was specifically addressed to our armed forces members, it was spread throughout the DOD and beyond. Partially as a result of federal workers' fear (not actually ordered, to be crystal clear) that they would be asked to turn on citizens. This sentiment was echoed across the entire government via internal emails (from Trump appointees!) as well to the civilian workforce. That's one of my proudest moments as an American and why I know we will get through it.

Emphasis mine. Link to original Reddit Post. Link to an article about the aforementioned memorandum signed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.