Several months ago, I postulated on history’s ranking of POTUS 45. I ranked him as, unequivocably, The Worst Ever. Little did I know how bad he really was. Like it or not, we need an update.
Presidential historians used to rank the several weak sisters surrounding Abraham Lincoln (Buchanan, Fillmore, Pierce and Andrew Johnson), along with 20th century figures such as Richard Nixon and Warren Harding as the worst. None of these even begin to approach, in mendacity and sheer incompetence, #45.
No, I’m not a political scientist. I did spend a few decades as a federal worker and manager, including a tour as a naval officer (I couldn’t find a doctor to sign off on a 4-F draft status because of flat feet). In that capacity, I served as a Custodian of Registered Publications. I was responsible for maintenance, inventory and general safeguarding of classified stuff. Woe betide me if I lost, misplaced or shared any page, paragraph or sentence. The penalty was a courts -martial. I can only imagine the outrage felt by many Custodians when stories appeared in the media about how POTUS 45 had taken a bunch of these to his retirement home, and, to put it delicately, flushed some of them down the toilet! Why is he still walking around a free man?
Then, there are the events of January 6, 2021. With apologies to the Eagles, do I believe my lyin’ eyes? Here is the Chief Executive on video exhorting followers to proceed to the Capitol for a, er, peaceful demonstration. Cost the lives of several policemen, for what that’s worth. What is the commonly accepted term for these events? I thank it’s an insurrection. To the extent I can trust my lyin’ eyes, sure looks like the man committed treason. Why is he still walking around free??
As I write this, it is near the end of income tax season. I think, at long last,the man has been forced to make public some of his tax returns. What we seem to know, for certain, is that he valued some of his numerous properties low to evade taxes, and high to obtain loans. I think the term of art is income tax evasion. Didn’t they get Al Capone for that? Why not The Donald?
At the moment, we are shipping billions of dollars worth of military hardware to Ukraine, a victim of the “brilliant” (if demented) dictator of Russia. POTUS #45 is an unabashed admirer of Vlad the Terrible. He has expressed, in the earliest days of the “special military exercise” his admiration of how “brilliant” it is.
We often speak in parables about how “nobody is above the law”. How about “equal justice under the law”. Somewhere in Texas lives an ordinary person who wasn’t aware that her legal status prohibited her from casting a ballot in the 2016 presidential election (bet she didn’t vote for the Republican cabdidate). Fortunately, the election police voided the ballot, but she was sentenced to five years in the slam for this heinous crime. Meanwhile, POTUS 45’s Chief of Staff voted twice, once of which was in North Carolina, where he had bought a trailer, but never spent a single night in it. Is he doing time for this? I doubt it.
One of his sorriest legacies is one we will be dealing with for decades – best expressed by the term “hollow government”. Besides placing numerous totally unqualified individuals into key cabinet and sub-cabinet positions, for the most part these were put in as “acting”, thereby avoiding any pesky advise-and- consent by Congress. These could be fired more readily (sound like a TV show the man starred in, by chance?). His son-in law had a bulging portfolio of serious problems he had no clue how to handle.
As a populace, we Americans tend to be contemptious of government. This is one reason why the party which wins the presidency tends to do poorly in the off-year elections. Another effect of this ingrained attitude is the en masse resignation of just about all appointed officials, even if the party/president is reelected. The result is a lag in filling major appointments in most agencies for at least a yesr. Why hasn’t the Attorney General prosecuted any of the higher-ups (maybe including #45)? Probably because more help is needed. Much more. Prosecuting rich, well connected.folks is, to say the least, extremely labor intensive.
Don’t believe your lyin’ eyes………….
Rogernarc 