I was born in 1950. Harry Truman was president. I don’t remember him. Despite low expectations for him when he came into office after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, he became one of our better-respected presidents, according to historians.
The first president I remember was Dwight Eisenhower. Ike also has grown in esteem over the years in the estimation of historians.
The next president, John F. Kennedy, is a case of “what might have been.” His assassination-shortened presidency showed promise. His wise handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis kept us out of nuclear war.
Lyndon Johnson’s presidency always will be haunted by the Vietnam War. But his advancement of civil rights gave him a firm place in America’s history.
Likewise, Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal tarnished his presidency, although he made great strides in foreign relations with openings to China.
In fact, every president in my lifetime has done things to make me proud to be an American. I may not have agreed with everything they did, but I thought they respected the United States and its legacy and represented the nation to the best of their ability. I can’t say that about the current president, Donald Trump.
President Trump’s continuing obsession with the size of his election victory (he did lose the popular vote); his continuing feud with the news media; his odd fascination with strong-man leader Vladimir Putin of Russia, all call into question whether he is the best man to be the most powerful person on earth.
I understand Trump’s appeal to the voters who elected him. His shoot-from-the-hip style is attractive in a world where political correctness has run amok. But that approach can only go so far in addressing complicated issues.
Trump’s spur-of-the-moment Tweets trouble me. I assume they are spur-of-the-moment. It is far more troubling to think he put a lot of thought into them. Even fellow Republicans have urged him to stop Tweeting. Does he have the ability to weigh all the options and their consequences before acting? The fate of the United States — and the whole world — rests in the answer to that question.
In my lifetime, I could say that I trusted the president to do what was best for the country; to represent us with integrity and honor. I hope I’ll be able to say the same about Mr. Trump.
