PRESIDENTIAL REVIEW FAIL FROM THE FIFTIES ONWARD

via amazon.com

An Election Day presidential review sounds like a good idea?

Here is one American’s remembrance of past presidents. Like a good boomer, I limited the scope to my lifetime.

Opinions are my own, based on historical review from a history guy out of Portland State.

Beginning in 1952, what are the lasting messages from the men who occupied the Oval Office.

Eisenhower

He came in seven years after WWII. The great general, the supreme allied commander, took the job of president seriously. He knew the stakes.

His most enduring message came at the end of his time in Washington. He warned the nation about the growing influence of the military/industrial complex.

Well done, Ike.

I’d like to see an encore warning about bad presidents and how they deal with the job, the work, the people.

Kennedy

JFK came in after a disputed election and asked the big questions. Fortunately he had answers that still resonate.

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. 

We boomers grew up with those words, wondering what we could do for our country. My answer is blogging for the good of all.

And voting.

You can vote for a better country if you can drag yourself to the mailbox and find a black or blue inked pen. Or you do some good for the country by showing up at the voting booth.

It’s not asking too much, is it?

Lyndon Johnson

He served the remaining term of JFK, then won the job in 1964.

After those four years he’d had enough and declined to serve another if his party nominated him.

His words echo today: “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”

He did the work of the people, and it showed.

Nixon

This was a retread politician, Eisenhower’s Vice President, who lost the 1960 presidential race, then the 1962 California governor race, then promised the press they wouldn’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.

But those weren’t his last words to America when he won in 1968.

After sweeping the presidential election of 1972, he resigned in disgrace by 1974. And yet:

In seeking reelection, Nixon publicly chose to tread the high road. “It is time,” he said, “to get with the great tasks that lie before us. I have tried to conduct myself in this campaign in a way that would not divide our country, not divide it regionally, or by parties or in any other way, because I very firmly believe that what unites America today is infinitely more important than those things that divide us.”

Ford

A month after Ford took office I joined the army in an unrelated incident. On July 4, 1976, I saw him give a bicentennial speech from Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Two months later my time in service was done. In November, so was Ford’s.

Ford assumed the presidency and immediately took up the task of reassuring a shaken and demoralized American public. “Our long national nightmare is over,” he declared in his inaugural address.

“Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not men.”

Carter

He came in at the right time, and left the office in good standing.

“In a few days I will lay down my official duties in this office, to take up once more the only title in our democracy superior to that of President, the title of citizen.” 

If there ever was a President of the people, he might be the one. He came in to serve, and left when asked to.

Reagan

This president came in with a WWII spymaster as CIA chief, along with a former CIA head as his vice president.

If that isn’t spooky enough:

Accompanying the Reagan era was the rise of a well-oiled corporate-funded conservative propaganda machine—including think tanks and lobby groups, endowed professorships at universities, legal advocacy organizations, magazines, and college student internships to train the next generation—designed to demonize activist government and glorify unregulated markets. Years before Rush Limbaugh began his radio ministry to his conservative congregation of ditto-heads, Reagan and this right-wing echo chamber were on the job.

One of the jobs was the Berlin Wall when he said:

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Bush I

President Bush followed his eight years as Reagan VP with four of his own in the big chair, for twelve years straight of republican presidents.

Along with his policies, Bush made a splash during a visit to Japan when he vomited on the prime minister.

A comedian noted that it was not illness, but Bush courting the college vote for re-election.

Clinton

This smart guy, described as a ‘policy wonk’ for his habits of reading and understanding legislative work, came to town as the young gun ready to tame the wild.

His “New Democrat” Party co-opted the Reagan appeal to law and order, individualism, and welfare reform, and made the party more attractive to white middle-class Americans. At the same time, the reborn party retained traditional Democratic commitments to providing for the disadvantaged, regulating the excesses of the private market place, supporting minorities and women, and using government to stimulate economic growth. 

One of his big accomplishments was a balanced budget, but it came under fire later.

From goodreads.com:

“If you want to live like a Republican, vote like a Democrat.” 

Bush II

The former Texas governor replaced neighboring state Arkansas’ former governor, beating Al Gore of Tennessee for the job.

Bush II’s father was a former president, his brother the governor of Florida.

After the dust settled about vote rules and regulations, the outcome for the presidential race of 2000 went to the Supreme Court.

Mission accomplished.

Obama

Call me old fashioned, but I like the idea of the most powerful man in the world living with his wife, two daughters, and mother in law.

Instead of a silver spoon or golden ring life history of privilege and acceptance, Obama came in as a constitutional scholar and instructor. He knows right from wrong, and if he’s anywhere off track, he had one of the smartest First Ladies to straightened him out.

Instead of glad handers and back patters, he answered to wife power. His administration showed the effects, even as the Heritage Foundation sees it through a conservative lens.

Heritage Foundation? Do they have a responsible take on a presidential review?

Obama from brainyquote.com:

“The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.”

Trump Presidential Review

On this Election Day, Mr. Trump runs for re-election on his record, and memorable quotes.

(And a boomerpdx presidential review.)

First a list of 100 accomplishments posted on promiseskept.com.

The problem with Trump’s accomplishments is his habit of stretching the truth, exaggerating, and puffing up. I didn’t say lying. I leave that for better informed people.

The most memorable quote from the President of the United States, words that echo up and down the halls of every school, every state capitol, and both houses of Congress?

This is his quote, backed up in print and video, saying the words no elected official, let alone a president, should ever say because it reflects a severe misunderstanding of what the job entails:

“I don’t take responsibility as all.”

In a nation of states described by Trump as red or blue, instead of united, this is not what you like to hear anywhere, any time, from most powerful man in the world.

A presidential review is not the place, either.

A vote from Trump is agreeing with taking no responsibility, as if that ever happens anywhere else but Washington.

A vote for Trump is agreeing with his tweets on twitter for LAW AND ORDER on one hand, and his praise for Texas pick ’em up drivers with flags flying off their fifth wheel hitch, surrounding a Biden/Harris bus, and playing bumper cars on the freeway.

A vote for Trump is a wish that you could do what he does without getting arrested, could say what he says without getting dragged by those around you.

Is that you? Someone you know? Help them out. Help yourself.

Vote Joe Biden for a better presidential review.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.