As the nation prepares to leave behind a year that has seen monumental history being made on the national and international stages, I got to thinking that I should wrap up that year and take a look …
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As the nation prepares to leave behind a year that has seen monumental history being made on the national and international stages, I got to thinking that I should wrap up that year and take a look at the year ahead with a Curmudgeon's Corner.
As a political junkie (much to Bea’s chagrin), I spent many an hour watching the shenanigans of both parties. Over the course of the year, I heard, saw and read a lot about more than a few of our presidents — and which of the holders of our nation’s highest office were judged by a variety of their watchers in the media, in academia, in their own parties, and by the electorate to be ranked as “good” or “bad,” “popular” or “unpopular” in their handling of the job.
As I cobbled this Corner together, I encountered a bit of unplanned irony: Jimmy Carter, our nation’s 39th and a one-term president, from January 1977 to January 1981, died on Dec. 29 at age 100. Between now and his being laid to rest on Jan. 9 in Plains, Georgia, next to Rosalyn, his wife of 77 years, there will much looking back at his life and legacy both in and out of office. It’s fitting that between now and his return to Plains much will be said about him in all forms of the media: for now most of what is said will be “good” and “popular,” although “bad” and “unpopular” will also be hinted at — diplomatically, of course.. Then all that is the good and not so good of his legacy will pass away as it has and will be for all our presidents.
Go online and view the last minute of the movie “Patton” and know that “all glory is fleeting.” Is all un-glory also fleeting?
In the end it all comes down to the president, the Constitution and the nation. An oft-told story about Benjamin Franklin leaving the Constitutional Convention has his response to a group of citizens asking about what kind of government the delegates had put together being, “a republic, if you can keep it.”
The man (no woman — yet) who takes the helm of the government of that republic has one duty to country above all others: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
The ”ability” to execute that duty has varied from one president to the next in the 230-plus years during which we have kept the republic. Some have been judged good or bad or everything in between.
After hearing judgment passed on any president’s ability, I have one question I ask of any person passing judgment: “Did the republic survive?” To date the answer has always been yes. It’s been shaky at times, but the torch has always been peacefully passed.
I find another bit of irony that to date the arguably most dangerous challenge to the survival of the Republic came from then-President now President-elect Donald J. Trump. Having lost his bid for reelection in 2020 to President Joe Biden, he refused to accept defeat and on Jan. 6, 2021, instigated an insurrection that if successful would have kept him in office for — who knows how long.
But having lost the election at the ballot box and in the Electoral College, having failed in the judicial system with numerous legal challenges and having behind him a failed attempt a stay in office, Trump, ever a sore loser, would leave office without attending the inauguration of his successor.
He would spend the next four years in a scorched-earth campaign, with the help of his cronies and party-first patriots, to defeat and unseat a doddering Joe Biden. Did they succeed? Well, sort of.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden slowly self-destructed into a sort-of senility while his party-first patriots propped him up. By the time, with the urging of his fellow Dems, he (they?) realized it was time, for the good of the party, for the good of the nation and for his legacy, to step down, it was too late.
On short notice, the party cobbled together a ticket that made a pretty good run for the prize.
But I suspect that despite all the evidence — in the plethora of polls and promising reports in the media — that the VP Kamala Harris-Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ticket had a fighting chance, the Democratic Party leaders knew deep-down that their cause was doomed. In the end, it was simple: too little, too late.
But looking further back, what if: Joe Biden had made it clear upfront that as an octogenarian he would be a one-term president, diplomatically admitting that he would be too old for the demands of four more years in the Oval Office? (Of course, Donald Trump, who will become an octogenarian in his second term in office could have made a similar promise.)
And in yet another touch of irony, the man who tried to steal and keep the office he occupied is returning — as a convicted felon — to that same office by winning both the popular vote of the people and the vote of the Electoral College. I wonder if the Founding Fathers, aware of the propensity for men to misuse power, would be surprised by the recent scenarios around the occupants of the Oval Office.
Ultimately, for better or worse, our presidents and their deeds are judged by the fickleness of history years, decades, centuries after their demise.
Good times or bad times? Does it matter in the big scheme of history?
For 2025, as you look ahead with hope or dread, maybe consider the words of 13th century (1225-1274) Dominican monk, scholar and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas: “The times are never so bad that a good man cannot live in them.”
Have a nice day. Warm regards as we forge ahead into a new year.