The Politician Game
I am honored that Decrepit Old Fool sent me an e-mail inviting me to pitch in my thoughts about my five favorite and five least favorite politicians:
Choose your 5 favorite and 5 least favorite American politicians dating back through your parents’ generation. Give a short explanation - about three sentences - for each one. The politicians need not be well-known. If you’re really an incurable political junkie, you can go 10 and 10 with the same limitation on explanation length.
Seein' as how my parents generation go back to 1915 that covers a lot of territory. And the hell of it is that I can think off hand of five that I didn't like during my adult years..which is probably more years than most of you reading this have been alive. It is not difficult to point my fingers at five politicians that I despise but it may be tough to find five that I respect...
The American political process is one of give and take...compromises and an attempt to reach a middle ground. Although this process is probably as successful as any and more successful then most it does create some problems when the opposing factors are just too far apart to compromise. The last time the politicians were that far apart it resulted in the emergence of a third party..the Republican party, the election of Lincoln to the White House, and the civil war. Those of us who have read some history send an alarming trend on both the right and the left of the political spectrum towards another refusal to compromise. Will it lead to a third party and another civil war? Maybe. My hopes are that it will lead to a third party just to avoid a civil war..a revolution at the polls.
Compromise leads to some other problems and the primary one is the loss of political integrity. So I am going to start my list of my most favored politicians of my time with some that I didn't agree with but respected the way they refused to compromise on the positions they held dear to them.
HARRY TRUMAN I have to respect a man who was willing to drop a couple of nukes on the enemy in order to end a war and save lives of American and allied soldiers. And then have the balls to put a sign on his desk THE BUCK STOPS HERE. Truman never shirked from his responsibility nor did he compromise his principles. He was a democrat when the democratic party stood for Mom, Apple Pie, and Ice Cream instead of taxing business, redistributing the wealth to those who have refused to earn it themselves, and one world government. Truman retired without ever buying or owning a home..one of the few who ever spent time in the oval office who was not a wealthy person within a few years of retiring.
RONALD REAGAN may have been smart or it may be that he just had on blinders and refused to see in direction but the one that he wanted. I think his ideas about supply and demand economics were right. However, he was one that sacrificed principles to get what he wanted from congress. If he has insisted on cutting spending instead of letting congress have their pork the nation would not be quite so far in debt. I have argued the point that Reagan was directly responsible for the fall of the Berlin wall and the demise of the Soviet Union. And, when he fired the Air Traffic Controllers over an illegal strike he drove home the point that the country CAN survive without unions which is enough in itself to put him at # two on my list.
JEB BUSH As governor of Florida Jeb managed somehow to find a middle ground most of the time and kept Florida prosperous during some hard economic times. I figure that Jeb is not only smarter, he would have made a better president than his brother. Jeb displayed some outstanding leadership after some hurricanes hit the stat and hit us hard..some places were hit three times within a couple of months. Instead of screaming for help from the Feds he did what had to be done to implement the states disaster preparedness plans and then did what had to be done to initiate the rebuilding process. However, I did fall out with him over backing the religious right wing over pulling the plug on a vegetable and I don't think he ever met a developer he didn't like.
TIP ONEIL I seldom agreed with Tip but I liked the way he run the House of Representatives. He was a master of compromise and would have made one hell of a horse trader..
JOE LIEBERMAN No, I wouldn't vote for him for president unless it was a choice between him and Hillary Clinton. But I have to admire a man who told the dim-a-crits to stick it in their ears when they pulled their support from him and went to the public and got elected. Hey, I sent him a donation and is is damn unusual for me to support a democrat for anything. Joe has stuck to the party line too much for me to support him for the White HOose but I think he does understand the terrorist threat and the fact that we of the Western World are at war with Islam..all Islam not just a few radicals.
You will note that I listed three democrats and only two republicans and of the five there is only one that I could give my whole heart support to and that is Harry Truman..he would be considered a right wing fanatic by the dim-a-crits and the MSM of today. The others I respect..not their views maybe but the way they did/or do business.
This brings me to my least favorite politicians. I am going to start this list with the man who did the most harm to this country during my lifetime:
LYNDON JOHNSON I don't have the time nor web space to list all of Johnson's crimes. As a senator he and Oklahoma's Kerr rolled in the largess of big oil and as a president he is directly responsible for the Vietnam war. Moreover, his guns and butter ideas led to an increased national debt and a welfare program is now seen as a "right" by an underclass of our society that has never earned their living and are teaching their children to grow up expecting that the government "owes them their living". The only positive thing I can find to say about LBJ is that he did oversee a strong civil rights law. However, the law was so ambiguous that the courts are still trying to sort it out.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT A socialist at heart and one who rolled over for Joe Stalin. The income redistribution programs of today got their start with DR and will eventually be the downfall of our republic.
HUEY LONG "A chicken in every pot" and I am gonna steal it from those who are raising the chickens and give it to those who are too lazy to raise their own. Long was a socialist if not a communist and the state of Louisiana is still suffering from his politics even though he has been gone a long time.
RICHARD NIXON I would like to be able to say that the good things Nixon did outweighed the bad..but I can't. He did open up a discourse with China which has led to diplomatic relations and an enhancement of the bottom line of Wal'Mart. But Nixon was an arrogant man and made the mistake of so many arrogant men..all he would have had to have done was do a "Harry Truman" and told the public that the buck stops here. He did not know about the Watergate break-in until after the fact but when he tried to cover it instead of taking responsibility for the actions of his men he lost the respect of the public. All he would have had to do was stand up and tell the people..my men made a serious error in judgement and they will pay for their crime. What the hell, he was a lame duck president anyway. But I think what made me fallout with Nixon the most was that he was dumb enough to get caught..I figure that he did no worse than any of his predecessors but he was stupid enough to get caught. And that was enough to make him unfit to be the leader of my country.
BILL CLINTON A wasted genius. Bill Clinton was probably the smartest president since Thomas Jefferson but Bill Clinton cared more about being president and what the office could do for him than what he could do for the country using the power of his office. The few things that he did do positive such as "changing welfare as we know it" he did with the support of the GOP and against the wishes of his party. Hos last days in office when he pardoned a man on the FBI's most wanted list and tried to rip off some White House furniture showed his true colors..which are all green. People, I could care less about a hummer in the oval office..but I do care that he got caught, As I said about Nixon, getting caught indicated to me that he was just not smart enough to be the leader of my country.
American politics is clumsy at best and most of the rest of the world looks at it in amazement wondering how we can survive with such a political mess. I do so myself at times. But the republic survives and hopefully will survive for some years yet. However, I am reminded of the days and decline of the Roman Republic. It fell because its politicians became more interested in their own good instead of the good of Rome. But then Rome survived as an Empire for hundreds of years..stronger than the republic ever was. Will this happen to us? Maybe...
Choose your 5 favorite and 5 least favorite American politicians dating back through your parents’ generation. Give a short explanation - about three sentences - for each one. The politicians need not be well-known. If you’re really an incurable political junkie, you can go 10 and 10 with the same limitation on explanation length.
Seein' as how my parents generation go back to 1915 that covers a lot of territory. And the hell of it is that I can think off hand of five that I didn't like during my adult years..which is probably more years than most of you reading this have been alive. It is not difficult to point my fingers at five politicians that I despise but it may be tough to find five that I respect...
The American political process is one of give and take...compromises and an attempt to reach a middle ground. Although this process is probably as successful as any and more successful then most it does create some problems when the opposing factors are just too far apart to compromise. The last time the politicians were that far apart it resulted in the emergence of a third party..the Republican party, the election of Lincoln to the White House, and the civil war. Those of us who have read some history send an alarming trend on both the right and the left of the political spectrum towards another refusal to compromise. Will it lead to a third party and another civil war? Maybe. My hopes are that it will lead to a third party just to avoid a civil war..a revolution at the polls.
Compromise leads to some other problems and the primary one is the loss of political integrity. So I am going to start my list of my most favored politicians of my time with some that I didn't agree with but respected the way they refused to compromise on the positions they held dear to them.
HARRY TRUMAN I have to respect a man who was willing to drop a couple of nukes on the enemy in order to end a war and save lives of American and allied soldiers. And then have the balls to put a sign on his desk THE BUCK STOPS HERE. Truman never shirked from his responsibility nor did he compromise his principles. He was a democrat when the democratic party stood for Mom, Apple Pie, and Ice Cream instead of taxing business, redistributing the wealth to those who have refused to earn it themselves, and one world government. Truman retired without ever buying or owning a home..one of the few who ever spent time in the oval office who was not a wealthy person within a few years of retiring.
RONALD REAGAN may have been smart or it may be that he just had on blinders and refused to see in direction but the one that he wanted. I think his ideas about supply and demand economics were right. However, he was one that sacrificed principles to get what he wanted from congress. If he has insisted on cutting spending instead of letting congress have their pork the nation would not be quite so far in debt. I have argued the point that Reagan was directly responsible for the fall of the Berlin wall and the demise of the Soviet Union. And, when he fired the Air Traffic Controllers over an illegal strike he drove home the point that the country CAN survive without unions which is enough in itself to put him at # two on my list.
JEB BUSH As governor of Florida Jeb managed somehow to find a middle ground most of the time and kept Florida prosperous during some hard economic times. I figure that Jeb is not only smarter, he would have made a better president than his brother. Jeb displayed some outstanding leadership after some hurricanes hit the stat and hit us hard..some places were hit three times within a couple of months. Instead of screaming for help from the Feds he did what had to be done to implement the states disaster preparedness plans and then did what had to be done to initiate the rebuilding process. However, I did fall out with him over backing the religious right wing over pulling the plug on a vegetable and I don't think he ever met a developer he didn't like.
TIP ONEIL I seldom agreed with Tip but I liked the way he run the House of Representatives. He was a master of compromise and would have made one hell of a horse trader..
JOE LIEBERMAN No, I wouldn't vote for him for president unless it was a choice between him and Hillary Clinton. But I have to admire a man who told the dim-a-crits to stick it in their ears when they pulled their support from him and went to the public and got elected. Hey, I sent him a donation and is is damn unusual for me to support a democrat for anything. Joe has stuck to the party line too much for me to support him for the White HOose but I think he does understand the terrorist threat and the fact that we of the Western World are at war with Islam..all Islam not just a few radicals.
You will note that I listed three democrats and only two republicans and of the five there is only one that I could give my whole heart support to and that is Harry Truman..he would be considered a right wing fanatic by the dim-a-crits and the MSM of today. The others I respect..not their views maybe but the way they did/or do business.
This brings me to my least favorite politicians. I am going to start this list with the man who did the most harm to this country during my lifetime:
LYNDON JOHNSON I don't have the time nor web space to list all of Johnson's crimes. As a senator he and Oklahoma's Kerr rolled in the largess of big oil and as a president he is directly responsible for the Vietnam war. Moreover, his guns and butter ideas led to an increased national debt and a welfare program is now seen as a "right" by an underclass of our society that has never earned their living and are teaching their children to grow up expecting that the government "owes them their living". The only positive thing I can find to say about LBJ is that he did oversee a strong civil rights law. However, the law was so ambiguous that the courts are still trying to sort it out.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT A socialist at heart and one who rolled over for Joe Stalin. The income redistribution programs of today got their start with DR and will eventually be the downfall of our republic.
HUEY LONG "A chicken in every pot" and I am gonna steal it from those who are raising the chickens and give it to those who are too lazy to raise their own. Long was a socialist if not a communist and the state of Louisiana is still suffering from his politics even though he has been gone a long time.
RICHARD NIXON I would like to be able to say that the good things Nixon did outweighed the bad..but I can't. He did open up a discourse with China which has led to diplomatic relations and an enhancement of the bottom line of Wal'Mart. But Nixon was an arrogant man and made the mistake of so many arrogant men..all he would have had to have done was do a "Harry Truman" and told the public that the buck stops here. He did not know about the Watergate break-in until after the fact but when he tried to cover it instead of taking responsibility for the actions of his men he lost the respect of the public. All he would have had to do was stand up and tell the people..my men made a serious error in judgement and they will pay for their crime. What the hell, he was a lame duck president anyway. But I think what made me fallout with Nixon the most was that he was dumb enough to get caught..I figure that he did no worse than any of his predecessors but he was stupid enough to get caught. And that was enough to make him unfit to be the leader of my country.
BILL CLINTON A wasted genius. Bill Clinton was probably the smartest president since Thomas Jefferson but Bill Clinton cared more about being president and what the office could do for him than what he could do for the country using the power of his office. The few things that he did do positive such as "changing welfare as we know it" he did with the support of the GOP and against the wishes of his party. Hos last days in office when he pardoned a man on the FBI's most wanted list and tried to rip off some White House furniture showed his true colors..which are all green. People, I could care less about a hummer in the oval office..but I do care that he got caught, As I said about Nixon, getting caught indicated to me that he was just not smart enough to be the leader of my country.
American politics is clumsy at best and most of the rest of the world looks at it in amazement wondering how we can survive with such a political mess. I do so myself at times. But the republic survives and hopefully will survive for some years yet. However, I am reminded of the days and decline of the Roman Republic. It fell because its politicians became more interested in their own good instead of the good of Rome. But then Rome survived as an Empire for hundreds of years..stronger than the republic ever was. Will this happen to us? Maybe...
posted by GUYK at 10:50:00 AM
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