I was 14 years old when Dwight D. Eisenhower left office in 1961. I remember watching his second convention, and that event began my interest in politics. “I like Ike” resonated in my ears and my very soul.

When John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960, I was in my freshman year of high school. My classmates were the original baby boomers and we celebrated the election of an extremely intelligent young man; a man younger Americans could relate to. To this day, one of my favorite books is a very short one; it is titled “The Kennedy Wit.” He was a brilliant, courageous, and charismatic man.

I was a senior when he was murdered in Dallas. To this day many men and women in my age group question the veracity of our government about the events of that horrible day in Texas.

Along with millions of other young men and women, the escalation of the war in Vietnam made us angry at our government. I am nearly 72 years of age, and to this day none of us understand why our nation was involved in a war thousands of miles away from our shores.

None of us were disappointed when Lyndon Johnson decided not to run again in 1968. However, we doubted that President Richard Nixon would be any better; and we were right. He accomplished good things related to international relations, but he was dishonest, and failed to end the war in southeast Asia in a respectable and dignified manner.

The American military retreated from South Vietnam in 1975 in disgrace under Gerald Ford’s presidency after Nixon was forced to resign.

The next Republican president remains a GOP demagogue.

 Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980. I was living in California, and as our state’s governor, he had been very successful. His first term as our nation’s president offered hope. However, in 1985, as he began his second term, his failed economic policy of “trickle-down economics” failed the working class, and his deep involvement in the Iran-Contra conspiracy removed much of his credibility. When Reagan left office in 1989, our nation experienced a trillion dollar deficit, and the unemployment rate was at 10 percent.

His successor was Reagan’s vice-president, George H.W. Bush. He had a venerable resume, and was a good and honest man. However, as a president, he was ineffectual.

In 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton came to the rescue. When he left office in 2001, our nation had an economic surplus and we were not engaged in any conflict away from our shores.

In 2000, the American people elected the worst president in history; until November of 2016. Another Republican who had no experience in federal government, and lacked the qualifications necessary to lead our nation, was sworn in on January 20, 2001.

Although George W. Bush and his vice-president, Dick Cheney, were warned by our security agencies that an attack on our nation was ‘imminent,’ they chose to go on vacation just months after they were sworn in. On September 11, 2001, our nation was attacked by terrorists; we learned immediately that they were Muslim extremists who called themselves ‘Al Qaeda.’ Fifteen of the 19 cowards who murdered thousands of innocent Americans on that horrific day were citizens of Saudi Arabia. The Bush family had close ties to the Royal Princes, and they were never considered as complicit. The architect of the murders was Osama bin Laden, who was a member of that same royal family.

Bush’s next move was to invade Afghanistan. Our intelligence agencies confirmed that bin Laden was hiding in the mountains in that region. However, bin Laden was never captured or killed. When the CIA discovered that he was just across the Afghanistan border in the caves of Pakistan, our forces were told to ‘stand down.’ Our military remains in Afghanistan today; our nation’s longest and most unwinnable military engagement.

In 2003 Bush, Cheney, and his cabinet convinced the American people that Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, was hiding weapons of mass destruction and was aiding bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist organization. It was all a lie. The Bush administration invaded a sovereign nation. Bush’s accomplishments were allowing the deaths of thousands of Americans and wasted as much as two trillion dollars engaging in an unwinnable war.

Bush adopted Reagan’s ‘trickle-down economics,’ and in 2008 America became engaged in the ‘great recession.’ Americans lost their jobs, their homes, and their confidence in their government.

When Bush left office in 2009, our nation was in a near depression, and we experienced a deficit in the trillions. The surplus from the Clinton administration had been erased completely.

President Barrack Obama stabilized our nation’s economy and returned dignity to the White House. His intelligence and deep concern for our nation’s people returned hope to the American people. To this day millions of Americans remain sad that Mr. Obama was unable to run for a third term. No president since Abraham Lincoln faced as great a challenge as President Obama. Only Franklin Delano Roosevelt received as much loyalty and devotion from the working class as President Obama.

With the aid of Russian president Vladimir Putin, a media which supported the Republican candidate, FBI director James Comey, and an attack campaign based on lies by Republican politicians, The least qualified and most immoral man in history was gifted the Electoral College on November 8, 2016.

Donald John Trump was not a Republican; he was a capitalist and a con man. Without a single accomplishment in his entire life, another Republican was placed in the position of destroying our nation and its future. Millions of American voters cast their ballots for a man who had been confirmed as a white supremacist, a sexual predator, and a criminal who had never been indicted simply because he was a wealthy, old, white man. In 14 months and 2 days, Trump has proven himself to be both the most expensive president in history and the worst man to ever defile the White House.

The bottom line is that Republicans fail the American people. They serve capitalists and themselves while refusing to address the important problems facing our nation in an intelligent and compassionate manner.

Until a new and less extremist Republican Party emerges from the ashes of these failures, our nation must be under the control of Democrats and Independents; hopefully many more Independents.

Change is up to you. We can allow Trump to destroy democracy and replace it with fascism or return our nation to its people. November 6^th will soon be here.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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