We’ve come to the end of our paranormal series. I may pick it up again later and if something strange happens, I will be more than happy to write about it and analyze it later. There are more unexplained stories in my life, but I am saving them for an upcoming book on the topic. We’re onto more random topics again, letting this site live up to its name.
I’ve written about presidents before. Well, I’ve written about one president: Abraham Lincoln. He was an interesting man for many reasons. As the sixteenth President of the United States, he is considered one of, if not the, best presidents we’ve had. He’s referred to as “Honest Abe” because of he was supposedly an honest politician, which was as rare back then as it is now.
Let’s face it, politicians of any level are not known for their honesty. I always remember that quote from Hunt for the Red October: “I’m a politician, which means I’m a cheat and a liar, and when I’m not kissing babies, I’m stealing their lollipops.” This pretty much covers every politician up to the White House.
To be honest myself, I’ve visited the Lincoln Memorial twice in my life and I barely remember it either time. The first time was because I was still a little kid and I thought it wasn’t important. As for the second time, my father made the family’s visit to Washington, D.C., so boring that all I wanted to do was get out of there and go home. (And that’s pretty bad because I hated where we lived at the time!)
Everyone is always talking about Lincoln in a black stovepipe hat. Let me be honest again- I’ve never seen a picture of Abraham Lincoln in a stovepipe hat. Not once! I’ve seen pictures of him with and without his beard, which is interesting because there is a story behind that beard. According to legend, some little girl wrote to Lincoln and said that he would be easier to elect if he grew one.
Maybe she was right. After all, Abraham Lincoln looked like a mutant chimpanzee, and, with his beard, he was less so. Let’s face it, he wasn’t the most physically attractive man in the world. He made up for this with his sense of humor, acknowledging his looks on several occasions and poking fun at himself. His honesty, his sense of humor, and his intellect got him through the election maze to the White House.
Was he the best president in the history of the country? I don’t know. He had a pretty difficult presidency considering he was in the middle of a civil war. Yes, he freed African slaves, but from what I’ve read, he didn’t view them in a very complimentary light. He banned slavery as a political move.
No one’s perfect, of course. I could probably look up several non-complimentary things concerning Abraham Lincoln, or any other president, for that matter. People are human, after all, and humans are some truly messed-up beings.
Let’s take Franklin Roosevelt, for example. He is also considered one of our best presidents on several lists. He helped create Social Security and pulled us out of the Great Depression. He demonstrated his leadership skills during the challenge of World War II and was the only president elected to the office four times. But, let’s face it, he was a jerk to his wife. He cheated on her all the way up to his death in the middle of the war.
You could say the same for John F. Kennedy, another admired president. He cheated on Jackie on numerous occasions. He also was a spoiled rich kid who had a hard time dealing with international politics and may have made the Cold War worse. Need I mention Bay of Pigs?
People admire Kennedy not for the things he did but for the things he might’ve done had he survived his assassination attempt. He represented the promise of the Baby Boom generation, who were devastated when he was shot down. But would he have lived up to his potential had he served out his full term? We’ll never know for sure.
Obama is also admired. Some say it’s because he earned a Nobel Prize, but he never actually did anything to get this prize other than being elected. It was such a controversial choice that the man who led the charge was eventually ousted from head of the Nobel committee. There are several good things he did in his presidency, but there are also many ways he messed up that I won’t get into here, because it would result in a whole new blog article, or rather a rant.
You can also look at some of our bad presidents and see some good things they might have done. Let’s look at our national traitor, ahem, I mean, forty-fifth president, Donald Trump. When a bill concerning the banning of bump stocks came across his desk, he could’ve vetoed it, but he didn’t. He also stopped a major corporate merger that would’ve created a dangerous monopoly… Yeah, that’s about it, but it counts.
Despite getting two terms, George W. Bush is considered a bad president by many experts. He led us into two wars and a major mess in the Middle East. A lot of legislation went into place that chipped away at our civil liberties during his presidency. He let New Orleans drown during Hurricane Katrina. However, despite Michael Moore’s criticism, he did show the face of a leader during 9/11 and passed some tax bills that the middle class still benefit from.
I’m sure I could find some good things to say about Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Warren G. Harding as well, but I’ll save that for a future article. My point is that every president on the list has good and bad things they’ve done, regardless of their historical rating.
Thinking about presidents, I would not want to be one. Every president that’s come down the pipe in my lifetime has visibly aged during their service. They regularly live on a few hours of sleep, being run all over creation for every crisis and event of state that comes down the line. They are chained in the stocks whenever someone in their administration does something bad or embarrassing. They get blamed for things done by Congress or the Supreme Court. It’s kind of a crappy job, if you ask me.
So what job would I get if I were to go into the political world? Probably a Supreme Court justice or a member of the Senate. Maybe a presidential advisor or a member of his cabinet. These are the jobs with the real power. The president is simply the face of the whole operation, the whipping boy of the country with very little authority other than signing things and making speeches.
Who rules the free world? Not the president, that’s for sure. Not the billionaires whose faces are always in the news. No, the people who rule the world are faceless and in the background. I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy going on, just that the people who truly have the power don’t make a big deal about it, they simply go about their business and let everyone believe whatever they want. I don’t know who they are, and neither do you.
On that dark note, I should probably end this discussion. You could utter the cliché that I would not wish the job of president on my worst enemy. This is true, only because I don’t want my worst enemy to have any sort of power, even the limited one in the White House. I wish spontaneous, explosive diarrhea on them, but I don’t want them in the Oval Office. I don’t want to serve there, either, though. Blech!
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