Eisenhower
I miss the old days. At least, I think I do. I’m trying to remember the last “acceptable” Republican President, that is, acceptable to me. Let’s see: I was born in 1956, and don’t remember much of Dwight Eisenhower (other than my own “Presidential Campaign” of 1960, “Vote, Vote, Vote for Martin Dahlman, throw old Ikey down the sink…”).
Mom didn’t like Eisenhower, she had a run-in with him during World War II. The story went that he “called her out” for an improper uniform, though her unit, the SOE, was completely irregular anyway. According to Mom, she made it clear he wasn’t the General of “her” Army. She had the equivalent “rank” of Wing Commander, a Lieutenant Colonel, in US Army terms, and wore a uniform when she wasn’t in Nazi occupied Europe. I was never really sure if that was a real conversation with the Commanding General, or what Mom thought she should have said.
Besides, Mom didn’t like the fact that Eisenhower, like many Americans in England at the time, was having an open affair with a British girl. It wasn’t that Kay Summersby was “living in sin” or anything. It’s just that Eisenhower was married to Mamie back home, and Americans already had a terrible reputation for womanizing while English men were away fighting the war. In fact, Mom had my father, a US Army Warrant Officer, “vetted”, before she met him for the first time. She wasn’t looking for an “affair” like Ike was having. They married in 1944.
Nixon
And I didn’t like Nixon. Mom had something to do with that as well. One of her college roommates was Kathleen Kennedy, the ill-fated sister of John F. Kennedy. So Mom was a Kennedy fan, even though as a British citizen, she couldn’t vote in Cincinnati. That Kennedy button never came off my blue sweater in the fall of 1960. And my disdain for Nixon grew stronger in 1962 when he lost the California Governor’s race (“You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore”). By 1968 I was twelve, and Nixon ran as the “man who could win” the Vietnam War. I was dedicated to Senator Robert Kennedy, and after his assassinaation, a reluctant supporter of Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
I did kind of admire Gerald Ford. Nixon supposedly picked him for Vice President, because Congress would “never dare” put him in as President of the United States. (The joke was Ford played “too much football without a helmet on” at Michigan). But Congress got Nixon out of office, and Ford did well for a few weeks. That is – until he pardoned Nixon. I wasn’t so happy with him after that.
Reagan
The world was supposed to end when Ronald Reagan took office. A lot of his policies were awful; cutting support to public schools, attacking organized labor, slashing aid for mental illness and putting mental patients on the street. But Reagan was a “muscular force” in foreign policy. He “won” the war in Granada. And while a lot of us thought his nuclear brinksmanship might bring us all to devastation, the economic impact of his buildup did bring the Soviet Union down and ended the Cold War.
And as far as the Bushes’ were concerned – I liked George HW a whole lot more than George W. But both were kind of “traditional Republicans”, not as wedded to “Conservatism” as they were pragmatic about running the Nation for the good of “business” (what’s good for General Motors is good for America). I didn’t agree with that ideology, but I could live with it. At least, they weren’t what I would call anti-American.
The Divide
But since the Bush v. Gore debacle of 2000, the first “election steal”, (in my view), America has been on a long road into polarization. When the Supreme Court voted on party lines, the veneer of “Judicial impartiality” was pierced. It kind of struck me like the Nixon Pardon. The Court was making a decision “for the good of the Nation”, pushing us through the crisis, when it seemed more like they were really deciding what was good for the Republican Party.
On 9-11 I could stand behind Bush. I too was stirred when he called out the terrorists – “…the whole world will hear us”. But the ugly “watched the TV show Twenty-Four” too many times actions of his Administration (blame Dick Cheney, but Bush was the President) was far too much.
Obviously, the Obama Administration was great – even though he was stymied by Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate, and his own careful awareness of his place in history. But the first Black President created a backlash that directly led us to Donald Trump. It wasn’t Obama’s fault, but absolutely a clear “cause and effect”, from the Tea Party to MAGA world. And that final level of extremism meant that the Republicans of “old”, were left with no Party. Even the heirs of Bush became irrelevant, relics of a bygone era. The “old Republicans” are a lot like the segregationist Democrats of the 1950’s; no longer representative of anything but ancient history.
The Crucible
In 1859, as he awaited his execution for the raid on Harper’s Ferry, John Brown foresaw the Civil War in his final speech.
Now if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments. — I submit; so let it be done! . .
I don’t know that we are facing a second Civil War (I hope not), but I do think we are entering a crucible that will determine the future of our Nation. This year, 2024, will determine America for the rest of my lifetime. It’s not like 1980, as awful as Reagan’s victory was at the time. Those “old Republicans” were still dedicated to the American experiment. Now, we face, perhaps for the first time, an “alternative theory” of America. It’s outside the range of the democratic (small ‘d’) thought that ran strong through the first two-hundred and forty-eight years of our history.
It’s not the “old days” anymore.
