WE FEEL THAT IT’S EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO SEE THE “BIG PICTURE” OF THE PAST PRESIDENT’S ADMINISTRATIONS AND COMPARE THE RECORDS OF EACH PRESIDENT’S KEY POINTS AND LEGACY SINCE 1960:
Democrats
Kennedy / Johnson: (According to Gallup, ¾ of Americans believe Kennedy was the best President since 1960.)
JFK was a WWII war hero. (See PT109 story). He was also an author (Profiles in Courage). In his inaugural speech, he said “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. Those words should resound today! The Kennedy presidency was described as Camelot when it started. He brought a young and developing family into the White House. In his three short years before being assassinated, he was engaged with Khrushchev over the “Cold War”. This culminated in “The Cuban Missile Crisis” in which Kennedy stopped Russia from establishing nuclear weapons in Cuba. The nation sobbed on November 22, 1963, when he fell victim to an assassin’s bullet. There still hasn’t been a logical explanation to that tragic event. The archives were to be opened in the year 2000 to release ALL of the information surrounding this event. The premise was that anybody that was involved in this conspiracy would have died by then. To this day the information has not been released and a thorough and satisfactory conclusion has not been reached for this tragedy that rocked the core of our nation.
Johnson / Humphrey (13th best)
Lyndon Johnson became president with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He was immediately charged with pulling the country out of this tragedy. Johnson was a very controversial figure, who has been alleged to have been involved in the Kennedy assassination for his own personal gain and in order to escalate the Vietnam War.
The Johnson administration passed an unprecedented amount of legislation, much designed to protect the nation’s clean water, air, land, and quality of life of the American people. Johnson made numerous accomplishments in the areas of education, Medicare, Medicaid, the environment, poverty, racial justice, and workplace safety.
His biggest challenge was the unpopular Vietnam War, which the purpose of is still in question today. Millions of Vietnamese lost their lives and property. 58,000 Americans lost their lives and hundreds of thousands more had their lives permanently altered. Protests broke out across the country culminating in the 1968 protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago which escalated into riots with police.
Two additional devastating events were the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in 1968 which sent the nation into turmoil over the loss of two popular leaders.
The tumultuous six years that Johnson had as President, led him to not run for office in 1968.
Carter / Mondale
Jimmy Carter was probably the nicest person to ever be President. His term was plagued with problems out of the Middle East. In 1978 Carter brokered a peace deal between Egypt and Israel. Since that deal the two countries have not broken the peace. The oil crisis of 1979 dealt a huge blow with high fuel prices and long lines at the gas pumps. In November 1979, Iranian militants stormed the U. S. Embassy and took approximately seventy people hostage for 444 days. He used patient diplomacy versus U. S. retaliatory power in order to keep the hostages safe. This decision dragged the process on and most likely was the key to him being a one-term president. 1980 saw the Iran – Iraq war which further impacted oil prices and supply.
Jimmy Carter was awarded The Noble Peace Prize in 2002. Jimmy Carter is renowned for his volunteer efforts with Habitat for Humanity.
Clinton / Gore (15th best)
Bill Clinton inherited two waves of Recession, an unprecedented stock collapse in the late 1980’s, several bank failures, oil spikes due to conflicts in the Middle East, rising poverty, and escalating crime. The Clinton Administration focused on budgets that increased the tax burden on the wealthy (contrary to Reagan’s “Trickledown Plan”). This resulted in the largest budget surpluses and debt reduction in U. S. history by the year 2000. Clinton had the lowest unemployment level since the 1960s and sweeping welfare reforms.
Clinton was identified as a “world leader” due to his trade initiatives to increase U. S. exports and his dealing with the escalation of terrorist activities during his two terms. He was responsible for the negotiation of NAFTA and Gatt trade agreements. Clinton inherited the intervention into the Somalia civil war from Bush and dealt with the rise of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Numerous U. S. Embassies and the USS Cole in Yemen came under attack. Clinton ordered attacks on Al Qaeda bases in Sudan and Afghanistan in an attempt to squelch the terrorist group.
Clinton’s downfall was his extra-marital affair with Monica Lewinski, which resulted in him being impeached for lying to Congress about the affair.
Obama / Biden (12th best)
Barack Obama made history for being the first African American President. He won landslide victories in both elections running on the promise of Hope and Change. He was the first president since Reagan to win the majority of the popular vote twice.
Obama inherited “the Great Recession” from the George W. administration. He prevented that from becoming the second “Great Depression” by developing the 2010 Recovery Act, which carried the country out of the recession and continued to improve the U. S. economy well through the Trump years until Covid-19 took its toll.
Obama’s terms were impacted by a lot of division in Congress. A good amount of that was based in racism. He recognized the need for affordable health care and enacted the “Affordable Care Act”. He was an extremely charismatic speaker, who related well and was very popular with working class families. He also represented the U. S. well on the world stage.
Barack Obama was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 2009. He has published numerous books including “The Audacity of Hope”.
Republicans
Nixon / Agnew: (14th worst)
Nixon impeded Lyndon Johnson’s peace efforts in order to escalate the Vietnam War. He went on to carpet bomb Cambodia and Laos. See the excerpt below:
The clandestine bombing campaign over Laos and Cambodia conducted by the United States during the Vietnam War was arguably one of the biggest tragedies of the second half of the 20th Century. The relentless bombing missions took a terrible toll on both countries regarding life, property, and resources, and many were staged from air bases on Thai soil.
These actions were against the orders of Congress.
The Vietnam war protests escalated during Nixon’s term. He responded by mobilizing National Guard troops to control college campuses. These actions resulted in four unarmed Kent State University students being killed by the National Guard on May 4, 1970. (CSNY song “Four Dead in Ohio”).
Nixon’s most well-known legacy was the break-in of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel. During that investigation, it was discovered that eighteen minutes of the Whitehouse tapes were deleted. This investigation caused the resignations of both Nixon and Agnew. Agnew was later convicted of felony federal tax evasion. Several other members of the administration also served jail time.
Gerald Ford: (19th worst)
Ford only served out the remainder of Nixon’s term and was defeated by Jimmy Carter in 1976. Ford pardoned Nixon for his crimes which disregarded the “Will of the People” at the time. There was an assassination attempt on his life by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme a member of the Charles Manson cult. Ford’s other notable fact was being a member of the Warren Commission, which was shown to be a whitewash of the Kennedy Assassination.
Reagan / Bush: (8th best)
Reagan was a very personable, likable, and popular figure due to his exposure in Hollywood and being the Governor of California. He was backed by California millionaires, and a lot of his policies were geared toward the wealthiest Americans. He dismantled and devastated social programs for the poor in the process.
Reagan’s most notable feat was the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. He had money and power behind him and flexed the U. S. muscle well. He was lucky to have Gorbachev as the Russian leader at the time. Reagan was a much stronger personality, and Gorbachev was looking to change Russia’s image. He probably wouldn’t have done as well against Putin.
The Reagan Administration was involved in the Iran / Contra Affair. The plan was to trade arms for hostages that Hezbollah had taken. Below is an excerpt from one of the reports:
After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, Reagan appeared on national television and stated that the weapons transfers had indeed occurred but that the United States did not trade arms for hostages. The investigation was impeded when large volumes of documents relating to the affair were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials. On March 4th, 1987, Reagan made a further nationally televised address, taking full responsibility for the affair and stating that “what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated in its implementation into trading arms for hostages”. Historians question how Reagan finished his term in office without being impeached for the Iran / Contra Affair.
Ronald Reagan initiated “Trickledown Economics”, which was based on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and international corporations. That has been the battle cry of the Republicans ever since. History will show that this led to the downfall of America for working families and the poor. There was an assassination attempt on his life by John Hinckley.
*The Bush family has been entrenched in the Mideast oil industry since the 1950s.
**George H.W. was the head of the CIA from January 1976 to January 1977.
Bush / Quayle (21st best) This didn’t take into account that he could have been impeached for his role in Iran / Contra.
George H.W. inherited the debilitating Reagan-era budget deficits after giving tax breaks to the wealthy and International Corporations. He was considered possibly the most overrated president of all time. He denounced the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act. This administration could not get out from under record deficits and never really got any momentum. Bush / Quayle lost to Clinton / Gore. Ross Perot was a third-party candidate who took a lot of votes away from the Bush / Quayle ticket. Bush paroled numerous people convicted during the Iran / Contra investigation allegedly to keep them from implicating him.
Bush / Cheney (33rd best)
George W. defeated Al Gore in the most recent string of Republican presidents not winning the popular vote. The vote was delayed due to supposed “hanging chads” on the back of the ballots in the state of Florida, where Bush’s brother Jeb was the governor and in charge of the election in Florida. Finally, Al Gore conceded the election for the good of the country so the nation could move on. Bush had to deal with the foreign terrorist attack on 9/11. Even though the attack pointed to Osama Bin Laden hiding in Afghanistan, Bush attacked Saddam Hussain in Iraq to avenge his father. During this conflict, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld disregarded the Geneva Conventions and gave orders to torture prisoners. Dick Cheney was doing most if not all of the decision-making for this administration. Bush / Cheney left us with “The Great Recession”, which devastated the country. George W. is considered one of the worst presidents in our country’s history.
Trump / Pence: (2nd worst) This doesn’t consider the Coup that Trump attempted on 1/6/2021 in order to stay in power.
Trump [rightfully] has been investigated more than any president in history. It started with Russian interference in him winning the 2016 election. Trump is still being extensively investigated for his role in the attempted violent overthrow of our government and attempting to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election.
- Jim Comey was fired while investigating Russian interference to aid Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election and colluding with Trump’s campaign, in an effort to end that investigation.
- The Robert Mueller Investigation: see acslaw.org “Key findings of the Mueller Report”. This investigation showed Russian interference in the 2016 election and support for Trump. The investigation led to the first impeachment tria of Trumpl. This information is extremely relevant when included with the facts of the January 6,2021 investigation.
- In 2015 / 2016 Michael Cohen was negotiating a hotel/residence in Moscow on Trump’s behalf during the campaign. Michael Cohen has testified as a co-conspirator in a number of criminal activities perpetrated for the benefit of Trump.
- Trump still has not released his tax returns. As of 2016 “The Hill” (How much money does The Trump Organization owe Russia and China.) reports Putin, Russian oligarchs, and the Central bank of China has lent Trump hundreds of millions of dollars and supported his campaign. It is a threat to national security and raises questions regarding his actions in office not knowing his indebtedness to countries who are enemies of our democracy.
- Trump is still spreading “the Big Lie” and encouraging his followers eighteen months after the 2020 election to continue to doubt that Joe Biden was the legitimate “people’s choice”. He is still actively attempting to nullify the 2020 election in order to regain power. The “Big Lie” is in reference to what happened before the Nazi’s took over Germany and formed a Fascist / Authoritarian government.
The results of Trump’s time in office have been the destruction of our Democracy and shaking the foundation of our free and fair elections. Our Communist enemies, who have financially supported his efforts for the past six years and with him still regurgitating lies and deceit, couldn’t be more satisfied with their return on investment. If Putin planned this personally, he couldn’t be happier with the results. The January 6th attempted overthrow of our government, was textbook TREASON according to our Constitution described as ‘the enemies at home”. Republicans are still carrying out this attempted overthrow of our government and disregard of ourDemocracy by now focusing on Governor and Secretary of State elections. That way they can disregard and overturn the people’s choice at the state level before reporting to the electoral college.
After looking at the bigger picture and history of Presidents over the past 60+ years there are some very alarming conclusions.
The Republican Presidents: Nixon – Watergate, Reagan & H.W. Bush – Iran Contra, W. Bush – Ignoring the Geneva Convention to torture prisoners and “the Great Recession” and Trump – the recruiting of domestic terrorists to come to Washington DC, in order to overturn the “will of the people“ and overthrow of our government in order to stay in power, have been engulfed in illegal activity and have left office with legal problems, huge deficits and economic disaster. While accusing Democrats of taxing and spending, the Republicans lived on recklessly spending money that they didn’t have, sending our national debt to a number that our great grandchildren will now be paying off. This destructive ideology of the Republican party has been practiced for decades with no regard to its impact on the Citizens of the United States (COTUS).
The entire current Republican Party has either conspired, cooperated with, or condoned the overthrow of our government and the attempted overturn of the people’s votes in the January 6th attempted COUP. This attack on our democracy for the good of the Republicans and the Republican Party has been ongoing since Nixon. They have shown that they will use any and all methods in order to accomplish the party’s goals with no regard to the rules of law or the negative impact on our nation. Pertinent information has been kept secret, lost, or destroyed when investigating these activities from Nixon through Trump.
The latest is the deleted texts of January 5th and 6th from the phones of Trump’s Secret Service details. Through the years, the Republican Party has continuously defined themselves as “the enemy within” according to our Constitution. The Democrats only legal blemish since Kennedy is Bill Clinton being impeached for lying to Congress about an extra-marital affair. That was more of a personal issue than that of national concern. Most Democratic Presidents have left the country in better shape than they inherited from their Republican predecessors.
