[On July 31, 1875, Andrew Johnson died. Johnson is one of our worst presidents, which means he also reminds me a lot of our current and very worst one. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy echoes of some of our worst presidents in Trump 2.0!]
Five quick
hit echoes of 20th century presidential badness here in our 21st
century moment.
1)
Woodrow
Wilson: The other most overtly white supremacist president segregated
the federal government; Trump et al are just firing
most every non-white federal employee.
2)
Herbert
Hoover: Hoover hastened and deepened the Depression, and treated fellow
Americans shabbily at every turn in the process; Trump is plunging us into
an even more unnecessary collapse, and throwing
almost all of us under the bus as he does.
3)
Richard
Nixon: Nixon treated the presidency as an excuse to pursue corruption and
crimes, most especially against all those his
paranoia labeled “enemies”; Trump’s corrupt criming dwarfs every past
instance, including Tricky Dick’s, and is itself dwarfed by his persecution
complex.
4)
Ronald
Reagan: For so many reasons, but most especially because by the end of his
second term Reagan was in major cognitive
decline, and likely unable to execute even the most basic functions of the presidency;
yet again Trump has a predecessor beat, as he’s been in decline since well
before his second term began, and it’s only
getting worse.
5)
The
2000 Election: Not a person, and perhaps not in the 20th century
(perspectives
differ on that one). But the Supreme Court’s stunning abdication of the law
in favor of partisan politics frustratingly foreshadowed a great
deal of what has created, enabled, and extended the Age of Trump, so it’s
gotta make this list.
July Recap
this weekend,
Ben
PS. What
do you think?
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