Levi Kreis Blog

11.15.07: From The Arena by Greg Weaver

2008-02-28

11.15.07:  "Presidential Legacies: Part 1" by Greg Weaver

Presidential Legacy.   Clinton talked openly about it, Prince George is obsessed with it.   Carter established his long after his presidency ended and I don't think King George the First even has one.   Reagan's is, well, mediocre or stratospheric depending on who you talk to.   For others it isn't necessary to even say their name, but rather a word, event or deed.   Take a little quiz:

1.)     Crossing the Delaware or Father of our Country

2.)     Emancipation Proclamation

3.)     League of Nations

4.)     Wore Women's shoes

5.)     The New Deal

6.)     Bay of Pigs or Camelot

Answers posted in part 2 of this article.

It's an odd phenomena surfacing the last 18 to 24 months of an American presidency.    Why?   Lets assume the human ego's propensity for defining itself in times' more forgiving context leads presidents to some of the same vanities as us mere unelected mortals.   Lets go as far back as the slack-jawed potty-mouthed president Richard M. Nixon.   Though his legacy will forever be Watergate and cussing up a storm on White House tapes, he still designed his library to wash over many of the events leading to his resignation.   Millhouse gambled on history forgetting his legacy.   Shortly after Mrs. Nixon's death last year, the federal government gutted the Nixon library and re-designed it to depict an accurate accounting of events.   History, in this case, has not been kind.   Nor should it be.   Nixon left behind a coterie of advisors who still haunt us today: Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz.   Thanks, Dick.   Word? Crook.

Some presidents have eight years, some only four.   Gerald Ford not only inherited both the VP office (from Agnew), but stepped in for Richard Nixon with only two years remaining in his term.   This makes him the only American to ascend to not one, but both high offices without actually being elected.   I've a soft spot for President Ford because we are both from Michigan.   A criticism I have of Republican presidents is their lack of involvement after leaving office.   Ford wasted no time in pardoning Nixon of all crimes while in office and it is widely believed he lost the presidential race of 1976 to born-again Christian and peanut farmer, Jimmy Carter.   I would agree.   Mr. Nixon's silly arrogant crimes needed to stand in perpetuity.   Dismissing them cemented Ford as a Nixon patsy.   The trifecta of Kennedy's assassination, the Vietnam War and Watergate is something I don't believe American politics has or will recover from.   Gerry dropped the ball. Incidentally, in another chickenshit move, Gerald Ford, asked his mild criticisms of our current administration not be published until after his death.   First of this groups nice guys, but not fit to be president.   Word? Wimp .

Speaking of peanuts, Jimmy Carter may be remembered for a host of things, but here is one many may not have considered:   Mr. Carter, love him or hate him, was the first modern day mud-slung president.    Democrats love him (with the exception of Teddy Kennedy) and will cite his triumphs, lasting peace between Israel and Egypt and an open "man on the street" approach to the presidency.   President Carter walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to his inauguration.   Republicans dismiss him as ineffectual.   A eunuch president who oversaw high inflation, gas shocks, the unraveling of the U.S. backed Iranian government, the Iran Hostage Crisis and a US military operation ending in failure as a fiery conflagration in the Middle Eastern desert.  Yet, how many of you have heard of Habitat for Humanity?   Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, now well into their 80's, founded this rare gem of non-profit organizations.  It's only goal is to build homes, thousands upon thousands of them, for the poor and calamity afflicted all over the world.  He puts his money where his mouth is and is not shy about speaking out.   'J' is our second nice guy in this article, also probably not a good president, but brought integrity back to the presidency and proves influence does not end with elected life.   Word?   Humanitarian.
 

Ronald Wilson Reagan.   Of this man, I am conflicted.   He ran successfully for office during my seventh grade year.   Voting for him in mock elections he seemed larger than life.   The type of man an overweight shy and frequently embarrassed beyond the point of speech seventh grader respected. I also recall understanding him when he talked.   He was an actor, yes, but aren't all politicians (ok, Dubya ain't so good at that or reading his "lines" but what can you do… Texas is ranked 48^th for education.) Again, with Ron, you get the dichotomous legacy depending on who is talking.   President Reagan ended the cold war by spending the Soviets into political and economic retreat…or…it was a combined effort between 40 years of consistent US foreign policy, Pope John Paul's personal crusade to pull Eastern Block Catholics back into the fold, all combined with an increasingly skeptical and restless eastern Europe, especially East Germany, pleading for reunification with the west thrusting them into the Information Age from which they'd been left woefully behind.   It's anyone's call.  The right would canonize Reagan while the left demonizes him. Personally, I think all of these factors combined with what was clearly a crumbling failed political structure in the Kremlin. 

He invoked Reaganomics (or voodoo economics if you are talking to King George the first in a 1987 debate) which led to the greatest economic expansion for the United States the world had ever witnessed and left us as the worlds remaining "super power."   The flip side?   Reaganomics are short for "deficit spending" which left a rather large debt hanging over the heads of every American household.   Every Congress and president has embraced this philosophy since, save Bill Clinton who actually balanced the budget for several years.   More on him later.    When politics mix with economics, the money pit becomes a murky primordial stew which I am not qualified to clarify or judge.   Again, you decide, but I do know this, Republican presidents since 1938 have increased the national debt an average of 9.7% per year, the democrats only 3.2%.   Is the GOP the party of fiscal discipline or clever marketing?  Check this out:  www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm

Eclipsing his elegant delivery of Peggy Noonan's Challenger disaster speech, clearly Reagan's most humanitarian and heartfelt moment, is the final gem in the crown non-jewel of the Reagan Presidency.   Reagan ignored it.   His Vice President ignored it.   Most of his administration ignored it for eight long years.   It was mostly the "gay plague" during the 80's, but his insistence on silence laid the groundwork for what is arguably the most tragic unending medical miseries human civilization will ever witness.   Yes, here in the states people are living longer, but please do not forget 45 million people live with this disease.   Certain countries in Africa are reverting to a third world economy because their work force is dead, dying or orphaned.   No one knows how many people are afflicted in former Soviet Block countries or China.   It played on our worst puritanical fears and floated a virulent form of homophobia to societies social surface.   We have paid dearly for his silence.   For President Reagan I will clearly go on record as saying his legacy is death. Word: figurehead.

Part two of this article will cover George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton and our current mess, George W. Bush.   I'll even throw a nod to Al Gore since he was elected for a minute.

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