Arbitrary Aardvark

Friday, June 05, 2020

a rant:

[–]overzealous_dentist 17 points 3 hours ago

[–]arbivark 1 point 20 minutes ago

the first president i dimly remember was lbj. he makes trump look like a choirboy. the next one was nixon, a foulmouthed redbaiter hounded from office when he got caught using a fraction of the dirty tricks kennedy had used against him in 1960. ford was bumbling but likeable enough aside from those who saw him as implicated in the warren commission coverup. carter was a moral decent man but president during a rough economic time. reagan was the devil himself to liberals because he was an unapologetic free market conservative. dozens of minor scandals with his staff. could not be forgiven for beating russia. bush senior had a decent resume, by comparison holds up pretty well. some people considered him in bed with illuminati and nazis. clinton was one of those corrupt southern politicians you sometimes see in old movies. believed that being a hippie meant old fashioned ideas about morality didnt apply to him. absolutely shameless. and his wife was a piece of work, similarly amoral but without his boyish charm. topped the list of most hated american woman for about 30 years. bush junior - warmongering idiot who squandered american traditional liberties with the excuse of terrism.

obama ran on "change", which was undefined, and many people expected an idi amin, although he governed as a moderate. resulted in a resurgence of the gop, setting up a possible trump victory.

so, no, trump isn't that far from the norm. each generation thinks they have the worst president ever.

all of these people were complicated, with a mix of good and bad traits. caro's "the years of lyndon johnson" is probably the best study of how the power of the presidency attracts those who are willing to pay any cost to hold it.

# posted by gt @ 19:10

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Arbitrary Aardvark

Friday, June 05, 2020

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