Respect and Admiration 

(This is an essay where I found too much to say – so this is part one)

Last Night

I watched the President’s press briefing last night, and found myself angry and frustrated.  In the most basic terms, I feel like the President is willing to let Americans die so he can get the “economy” going again.  To me, those words are code for his desire to be re-elected, with his popularity tied so closely to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  It’s not about what’s good for America; it’s about what good for Trump 2020.

I know my friends who support the President will call this out.  They will say I’m coming from a “place” of hate; that I can’t accept that maybe Mr. Trump is right, and all of those scientists are wrong.  Or worse, they will try to convince me that the “damage”, the numbers of deaths opening up the economy would create, is worth it.  As Dan Patrick, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas said, speaking for all those at-risk seniors, “…Let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves”.  

So I need to take a moment, and look back at how I view the twelve Presidents that have served in my lifetime.  Some I know more by history then by actual experience, but for most, I know how I felt then, and what I think about them now.  So for the next two essays, here’s what I think, and what I felt about those men.

Ike

I was born in 1956, so Dwight Eisenhower is only a vague memory for me.  There was a campaign song that my parents’ friends sang about me running in the 1960 Presidential campaign, “…vote, vote, vote for Martin Dahlman, throw old ‘Ikey’ down the sink…” I know now, most of those friends were Democrats.  

And I remember that my Mom didn’t like Eisenhower on a personal level.  During World War II she encountered him entering Allied Headquarters in London.  She was a “spy”, part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) with the brevet rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  SOE had makeshift uniforms at best, considering most of their time was spent undercover in enemy territory, but Eisenhower decided that Mom’s wasn’t “sufficient”, and commented on it.  I remember my Mom saying she told the Supreme Commander that she wasn’t part of HIS American Army, and ending the conversation.

But looking back at Eisenhower he lived up to his “moderate Republican” label.  He led the American post-war boom, in industry and wealth as well as babies.  He kept America out of nuclear war, controlling his old friends in the Defense Department who wanted to flex their new atomic muscles.  And Ike recognized the danger of the military-industrial complex, driving foreign interventions for economic gains.  So on a whole, he did OK, regardless of his conflicts with Mom.

Let the Word Go Forth

John Kennedy was a young, dynamic leader who offered America new energy and goals.  I was still very young, but I wore my Kennedy button proudly.  Mom was connected to the Kennedy’s too, having had his sister as a roommate in boarding school, but it was the excitement he generated that drew many to his standard.

And looking back at Kennedy, he did uplift Americans, starting with his inaugural address challenging:  “…ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”  He set standards and goals, and showed strength under fire, getting us through the Cuban missile crisis.  The tragedy of his death is still seared in what was my seven-year-old mind.  The whole afternoon of November 22 is still available, a play-by-play in my memory.

LBJ

Johnson memories are clearer.  From his swearing in on Air Force One, to hearing him speak at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Dayton, I saw Johnson as carrying on the goals set by JFK.  Johnson was the Southern politician who championed civil rights, and began the “War on Poverty” to change America.  And he defeated Barry Goldwater in 1964, a man who seemed willing to go to war without provocation.

But Johnson too was at war, and I entered adolescence submerged in Vietnam.  By 1968 I came to support those who were against the war, and therefore against the President.  The core of my political interests and values were established watching the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, the disastrous police generated riots in the streets and parks.  I was trapped on a couch in front of the TV, a newly broken arm propped up on a box, and horrified that the leaders I supported were being shut up and shut down by brute political and police force.

What Are We Fighting For

Nixon won the election.  They announced it over the Van Buren Junior High public address system.  I put my head on the desk, as my classmates whooped and clapped.  And while Nixon, like Eisenhower, was a moderate Republican, even putting wage and price controls on the nation; it was Vietnam that defined his Presidency.  His “peace plan” from the 1968 campaign seemed to be “fight the war forever”.  We marched in the streets, and nominated McGovern in 1972 to end the war. McGovern lost.

Watergate subsumed my junior and senior years of high school.  I knew it all, the name of the security guard who found the “taped” door (Frank Wills) and the lawyer who led the “dirty tricks” campaign (Don Segretti).  I wrote Nixon jokes on the chalkboard at school, much to the outrage of my government teacher, Mr. Wagner.   With pride, I served an in-school suspension for my offense.

Nixon was the first President I couldn’t find a way to respect.  He was a liar, in public, and we knew it then.  He lied “to our face” and expected Americans to believe him.  We didn’t, and ultimately the rest of the nation didn’t either.

A Young Politician

Gerald Ford was nowhere near as “dumb” as Nixon made him out to be.  He led the nation from “the long national nightmare,” and while I didn’t agree with his politics, I respected him as a leader.  But I worked hard for his opponent, Jimmy Carter in 1976.  It was my first taste of professional campaigning, and one hundred hours a week wasn’t enough.  I remember walking though Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati on the morning after “we” won the election, knowing how narrow the outcome was.  Carter won Ohio by 10,000 votes; I could take credit for at least some of them.

I have the utmost respect for Jimmy Carter.  He, like Ford, was a standup man, a leader without the narcissistic flaws of either Nixon or Johnson.  He was a “good” man, but he didn’t know how to navigate the pitfalls of Washington politics.  That kept him from achieving his goals. He was a moderate Democrat in a party shaped by the radicalism of the anti-Vietnam effort.  He got elected, but he didn’t fit in with his own “team”.  

Honorable Man

Off the subject, Jimmy Carter has led an incredibly fulfilling life after his Presidency. And by the way, it really is “Jimmy”.  That’s what he told me, a twenty-year old kid working on his campaign when I called him “Governor Carter.” And as a former (junior) campaign staffer, I stayed connected to the Carter Foundation and all the great work being done.  It’s not just ending childhood blindness in Africa (trachoma), or building homes in poor American neighborhoods (Habitat for Humanity).  President Carter has personally overseen elections throughout the world, helping to bring democracy in places that never had a say before. 

He stands up for what he believes, even now at ninety-five years old.  While his Presidency got entangled in internal partisan politics, his life after he left the White House is full of even greater achievements. 

He is a man to respect, unlike our current leader.

(Next essay – the rest)