Today is a national holiday, but it shouldn’t be. When I was in school, back in the ‘olden days,’ we looked forward to February. We celebrated Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12th, and George Washington’s on February 22nd. They both deserved to be honored for very different reasons. Then some marketing wizard created ‘President’s Day.’
Let’s be honest, many of our presidents do not deserve to be honored, including the man who is soiling the sheets in the White House today. The American people are the most uninformed voters in the world, and all too often vote on negative emotions, not on the qualifications of the candidates or their position on the issues.
Therefore lets look at the facts, and rate a few of our presidents on their records; how they served the people, and fought special interest groups to protect the rights of the majority.
I believe that one of the most overlooked presidents is Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was the first president elected after WWII. His war record helped him win the election in 1952. Mr. Eisenhower helped our nation move forward as we moved from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy.
Throughout two terms he balanced the budget. He created the interstate highway system, which opened up our nation to tourism as never before. He served with honor and dignity, and has been under-valued by many historians.
John F. Kennedy has many faults, but his wisdom and courage will remain a legend throughout history. For thirteen days in October 1962 he stood tall against the ‘Great Bear’ and showed true strength and tremendous courage. Sadly, his leadership was removed from the American people on November 22, 1963.
Ronald Reagan’s first term can be credited with multiple international successes, most importantly the end of nuclear proliferation between Russia and the United States, and thereby establishing a stable relationship with our most powerful adversary. He was a true diplomat. Sadly, his second term was tainted by a failed economic policy which left our nation with a 10 percent unemployment rate and a one-trillion dollar deficit.
In 1992 William Jefferson Clinton was elected by the people to heal a failing economy; he did just that. When he left office in 2001, our nation was experiencing a surplus.
In 2008 our nation made history. We elected our first African American president. No man in American history was ever faced with such enormous difficulties. Our nation was in a great recession; we were engaged in two unwinnable wars; and just days after his inauguration the leader of the Republican Party, Mitch McConnell, stood before the press and promised that his party would do nothing as long as Mr. Obama was in office. Their goal was to insure that he was a one-term president. They did nothing for eight years in an open display of racism not seen in our nation previously.
Mr. Obama’s policies moved us out of the darkness of a recession and became the president of all Americans while fighting the efforts of the opposing party to offer their loyalty to special interests. History will remember him as one of the greatest and most loved presidents of all time. Sadly, he will also be remembered as one of the most hated by racists and bigots.
Abraham Lincoln will be forever linked with the sins of slavery. His strength was his belief in the Bill of Rights. He was the first president who represented every person in America without considering their race, religion, sex, or color of skin.
We honor George Washington for one fact; the United States of America would not exist today without his leadership in the Revolutionary War. His courage and intellect will be remembered by every man and woman throughout history.
For the working man, Franklin Delano Roosevelt will forever be the ‘people’s president.’ He entered the presidency in 1933, while our nation was still recovering from the ‘great depression’ of 1929. His policies served the working man as he fought corporations and big business who had enjoined with the government to create a plutocracy prior to his presidency. It is President Roosevelt who began programs which Paul Ryan seeks to destroy today; Social Security, and Medicare. He was so loved by the people that he was elected to office four times. His presidency is the reason term limits were established as Republicans lost nearly all power. In my humble estimation, he was the greatest president in American history.
It is important to notice that the working class has fared far better when Democrats control Washington. They have a far superior ability to govern than their Republican counterparts, and nothing proves that more than today. The forecast for our nation’s economic future is very upsetting according to top fiscal experts.
Let’s take the right steps in November and return control of the House and Senate to Democrats. Save yourself and those you love.
Op-ed by James Turnage
Photo courtesy of FDR Presidential Library and Museum
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