American Presidents

So I got brave and asked a question on Facebook and I actually got some responses. my question was:

 so, if I said that this nation has seen 42 great presidents, which two would you think did not make the cut?

I asked this question to help give me some direction for this post. I already had the answer that I needed, but I wanted to know what others thought, and wanted to help them see why the president they think is terrible, is in fact not that bad at all. I will be both examining this on an american scale and a world scale. I will also explain the reasoning behind the two presidents I picked, Now I do not have time to go over every single president, the reasons why they were or were not terrible, or in one case..is..because that hasn't been taken care of...that's a joke...so this is what I am going to do. I will go over the presidents that my friends told me, and explain those, and a couple others...because I honestly do not know why they were not brought up maybe it's a younger generation thing. So, on the chopping block we have:

• Richard Nixon (R)
• George W. Bush (R)
• George H. W. Bush (R)
• Woodrow Wilson (D)
• James E. Carter (D)
• Barack H. Obama (D)
• William Clinton (D)
• Herbert Hoover (R)
• Ulysses S Grant (R)

And Here are the two, that actually made the cut

• Andrew Johnson
• Richard Nixon

SO...let's start with the most recent presidents and go back from there:

1. President Barack H. Obama 2008-end of time: Regardless of what you think about him he still marks an important milestone in American History, the first non-white president of the United States of america.
   
   because everybody knows that Clinton was the first black president
   so everything aside, that's still something to be proud of. Now I want to be upfront about this. I did not vote for him this last election, and frankly, I stand by my vote. This does not mean I think that the guy is terrible and worth the two seated box of shame, and we are not here to read what I do not like about him. When it comes down to it, I see no difference between Bush Jr. and Obama, a lot of the hate is just a matter of opinion, and political stances. One of the biggest things to his name is the Universal Health Care; another would be gun control laws via executive order.  He also was able to send in a navy seal team to take out Bin Laden, not to mention a couple other known terrorists.  Just like any other president, he has seen his share of trouble (regardless of whether he recognises them as so or not) he has the Benghazi scandal to his name, then there is the Fast and Furious Gun scandal, others would even argue that his use of the Drones is a bit overreaching and his lack of support for the troops. However, I see no reason that any of these reasons good or bad  qualify him as a terrible president. Bottom line if you think Bush is terrible you need to accept the fact that Obama is equally as bad..but I will explain that better after I talk about Bush. I would put Obama in the top thirty, and to follow the advice of a friend...who I believe is even a republican, lets wait to judge the guy until he is out of office
   
2. President George W. Bush 2000-2008: There is one thing that always puzzles me about. peoples treatment to this president. They make him out to be stupid and or dumb, and in all honesty he is neither, He has had more education than most people, having attended both Harvard and Yale, earning a B.A in History and  his masters in Business Administration. Even if his father bought  him into those  universities, he couldn't buy him those degrees, that takes knowledge. I think Bush got a lot of the blunt end of peoples lack of understanding  of how difficult the  position of the president is, and was president at the time of what I would like to call the  "Second Great Liberal Movement". He was also president at the time of September 11th, and Hurricane Katrina. He received a lot of flack for both,  a lot of which just really wasn't called for and honestly out of his hands, but then again people like to blame the president for things that they have no control over..like the price of gasoline. September 11th argument has little ground to stand on, as most of it is conspiracy theories. However what does have ground, is the "War on Terrorism" where some would call him a war criminal, but to those I would ask to lookup the definition of "war criminal." People like Heinrich  Himmler and Idi Amin are war criminals, Bush just does not make that cut. When it comes to the search for the mystical WMDs. I actually blame the people who told him in the first place that they had them. Understandably he should have listened when they said there were none.  I will also argue this could also been out of not wanting to back out and all of a sudden be hit with the weapons that "didn't exist." When it comes to Katrina  I would put most of the Blame on Louisiana and FEMA for the huge lack of preparation,( FEMA is ALWAYS supposed to be ready)  and a also blame the people that chose to stick it out, they had many opportunities for help and they refused it. I reserve very little blame for Bush. I understand there are a lot of people mad at Bush, and those that think he is the incarnate of evil, I am also here to help those people. I know this technique that will help you get over your hatred. Step one: Place both feet firmly on the ground about three feet apart. Step two: Place both hands on your hips. final step: pull your head out of your freaking @#$%.   George W. Bush was not the best president we have ever seen, not even close I rate him in the top thirty ( equal with Obama) 
   
3. President William Clinton 1992-2000: Are you seeing a trend here....or is that just me? Three presidents in a row! It seems the american society has not been happy for longer than we think, news Flash, they haven't been happy for longer than the longer that you thought.  When I was asking my friends, only one of my friends  brought him up. Little does he know I am only rebuttal his opinion. Now to start off I am going to ignore the under the desk fellatio, and focus more on the prior events, that is, his actions as president. Many republicans would like to argue that it was Clinton's Economic plans that flipped the economy--the economy that Bush got, and what Obama campaigned for. This does have some truth to it...in some cases it may take up to four years or more for economic plans to show their effects. In recent news we learned about the overturning of DOMA and PROP 8, well Clinton was the brainchild behind DOMA, and "Don't ask don't tell". There is also the issue of him selling weapons to the Afghanis, which  they later used against us, but then again if we had not given them those guns, they could have bought them from someone else--that does not entirely remove the issue that we sold them the guns. I think his saving grace is that in the big picture he really was not that terrible of a president, he did make some bad decisions/ in my studies on him, I am also picking up hints that he was not really known for any willingness to work with the other party. On a side funny note he campaigned against Bush Senior for raising taxes, which then after winning, one of the first things he does...is raise taxes.  Overall his  actions as President land him in the black.  he would probably be somewhere in the top 15 
   
4. George H. W. Bush 1988-1992: Chances nowadays merely saying the name Bush, and people will start some kind of hate tirade, as if they really know what they were talking about. I personally do not think its worth the time, if it was up to me I would just say that he wasn't that great of a president and leave it at that...but I kind of do have to explain their presidency. I want to start Bush Senior off by saying "Read my lips, no new taxes." Now that we got that out of the way, I want to mention that he did in fact raise taxes... that did not really help him in his reelection; in fact one could argue its what lost him his reelection. However, if you were to closely examine what happened play by play, you would notice that this was not entirely his fault, he was attempting to fix the deficit from Reagan's presidency, the republicans wanted to cut spending and the Democrats wanted to raise the taxes...and what went through in the end was the raising of taxes, Bush had little time, and understandably he needed to pass something, so he signed it in, and everybody hates him for it. What he did there is what i would compare to a parent promising their child a box of cookies, but then a bill comes in that needs to be paid and he just showed responsibility and willingness to do what what was necessary. so kudos to him for that. Another big thing to his name are the "Americans with Disabilities Act," which was at this time the biggest pro-rights act passed in decades, and the Civil Rights act of 1991. Now understandably it's important to know that he turned down the Civil Rights Act of 1990, but this was out of fear that racial quotas would have to be met. and that would actually lead to more problems. (higher unemployment due to certain racial quotas being met and others not being able to be met.) There was yet another bill that hurt him as president. that was his ban on certain semi-automatic rifles. This lost him his endorsement from the NRA, which he was a lifetime member of at that time. There was some other good things to his name: The re-authorization of the Clean Air Act, which requires--amongst other things--oil companies to cap those pipes. He also signed in the  Immigration Bill of 1990, which help legal immigration  raise 40%. More well known is his war against Saddam Hussein, or the Gulf War. that however did not really negatively affect his presidency as his actions there raised his popularity. All in all, in the four years of his presidency I would say a job well done, and its a shame he did not get a second term. He would also make the top fifteen.
   
5. James E. Carter 1976-1980: I am not saying Reagan is without any faults, no one really brought him up in the initial discussion. and besides..i love that guy.
   
   I mean look at him..you could just pinch those cheeks he is so adorable
   The farther back the presidents go the more exciting this gets--mainly because it shows people pay attention to their history...either that or they are really old with a vendetta. I will go with the first. after studying "Jimmy" Carter, and his role as president I was a bit confused about why people were upset with him and thought he was a terrible president. He was another president that only served for four years. During his presidency he established two new cabinets, the department of energy and the department of education, Even more, he established the National Energy Policy, which helped with conservation of energies, in controlling the price and in introducing new technologies. Let us not forget how much of an advocate Carter was for equal rights, and this is coming from a southern Politician. He was also president during the Russian  Summer  Olympic Boycotts in 1979, he bailed out Chrysler that very same year. He also sent funds to Love Canal, a "natural disaster" of sorts if you can call it that, apparently  some people found a toxic waste dump and said lets build our neighborhood here ha-hee because thats a smart thing to do. so the government had to come in and demolish over 500 homes and a couple schools, all because people lack education. He also helped in deregulation of breweries, making it a lot easier to moonshine your own tonics. and deregulation in airfares which loosened the government's control over airfare.
   
6. President Herbert Hoover 1928-1932: I must say I was shocked that I had to mention Ole' Hoover before people would reply: "oh yeah, him...he was pretty terrible.." and I would add maybe as a president. but there is one thing that you cannot deny, that is that he didn't try. Simple historical observation proves that one year after he took office america fell into the "Great Depression" if you do not know much about it talk to your grandparents chances are they are at least partially familiar with the depression  and/ or they remember stories from their parents, terrible times. I want to say this he was definitely one busy man for only serving four years. So the story behind how he got elected. Calvin Coolidge decided that he did not want to be President anymore, and so he thought...hmmm who do  I hate the most and has never given me a good idea?..I know Herbert! And so he chose Herbert Hoover as his successor in the next election, and Hoover managed to win the presidency. In hindsight I think Coolidge totally saw this coming, and thought " yeah...I don't want any part of that" and left town as soon as he could and left Hoover with Damage control. It works if you think about it, if you knew the economy was going to go into Groucho's thrash can, who would you give the presidency to..your most trusted friend...or worst enemy? BINGO. Enough of that tangent though--MOVING ON. President hoover did a lot  of work during the presidency. He  worked with the IRS and Judicial system and cracked down on Tax evasion, which also led to the prosecution of notorious gangster Al Capone. He was also a nature lover, he set aside around 3 million acres of land for national forest. he also advocated for lower taxes  for the lower income americans--he not only did that but he closed loopholes for the wealthy raising their taxes as high as 63% their net income...hows that for a republican? take that Liberals. He increased the amount of Veteran's hospitals, to help insure they receive care. He created a Children's Charter that advocated  the protection  of children regardless of race. He improved the Postal service ensuring safety and better delivery. He instituted Prison reforms and reorganized the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and if you do not think that is enough... his Vice President...Native American, yeah awesome. Advocated the rebuilding of  urban slums.  There is also the Norris La Guardia Act that limited judicial powers when it came to labour disputes. Then there is what he is most famous for...(drum roll)... the Boulder Dam, which was later named and then renamed as the Hoover Dam as a sort of commemoration to the only real accomplishment that hoover achieved.
   
   then again, if your only remembered accomplishment is more  6 million tons of concrete and over 3,000 deaths....
   It does appear at first that Hoover was a terrible president, speaking that any of his plans either backfired on him or he could not get them through congress, but historians today more and more are starting to agree that he actually made a decent decision in the recovery of the Great Depression-- Laissez-faire approach, which is a hands off and let it fix itself style that did not get him any points with the democrats. Even though he did not to involve the government that much, he did however encourage  businesses to do their best to keep their employees employed and to not layoff any of their workers.  There is a lot more to Hoover's presidency, so much more. but I wanted to end with the Irony of Roosevelt  Blasting Hoover for bad politics during the depression, and  over taxing the citizens, but then uses everything Hoover did as his inspiration for his "New Deal" thus starting the " its only okay when a Democrat does it" style thinking.  This is just me..but I put Hoover in the top five easily, just for his efforts.
   
7. President Woodrow Wilson: 1912-1920:  almost every week I am reminded of how Liberals view the the conservative republicans,  war mongering racists, I think they often forget their own party's history. okay so snarky criticism  aside he was a great president I read up on Wilson's term as President and I did not find, like most presidents, much wrong with it. He ran a pretty nice presidency for eight years he implemented and advocated for some really nice policies. It is my conclusion  that it was not his Presidency that people did not like about him, it was Woodrow the person that they did not like. Wilson was a southerner, but still that is not what people did not like him. He was the first democratic President  since 1869. (still not getting close) He was not really a war mongerer, so the people were not upset about that. He handled World War 1 in a magnificent manner, he did not enter the war until it was absolutely necessary. He even gave blacks even pay. He, however did keep them separated from whites and away from the actual war, and when this decision was questioned he response more or less was:deal with it. Here we have the root of the problem, while he was not a warmonger. it is still quite obvious that he was a racist, but a racist that was willing to move forward with the civil rights, and it can easily be argued that at that time it was for their "own good" while it was very harsh( and would not fly in todays time)  racial discrimination was still very much in effect and had he just intergrated white and blacks during a war, they would not have had the needed cooperation between soldiers to win the war. I think this is what made him a great president, even though he was racist, he was willing to put that aside to move civil rights forward.(although there are some historian that would say that even his policies were a bit racist. plus we need to give it to  the guy. He was one of the few Presidents to "finish"(not saying he started it)  a war that  he first got into.
   
8. Ulysses S Grant: 1868-1876: He was a drunk, and a mediocre General.okay now that we have that out of the way, he did a do a  decent job with "Reconstruction." 
9. Runner ups: There were a few other presidents mentioned, when I asked my friends which 2 (two) presidents would you say were the worst in american history, and they fill adamant that they have to name off this HUGE list, needless to say I ignored those comments. I asked for two, not 23 presidents. This post has been in progress already for a week. I love the research but I want to finish this. However, to at least be respectful of their opinion I will at least list off some of their choices....actually I could not find the list, but anyways imagine a list of other presidents that you thought were horrible. They are not horrible so get over yourself.

So this is the first part of my Post. I will now go over the two that did make my list: Richard Nixon and  Andrew Johnson. These two are the exception to my Idea that all the presidents were great presidents, after all you can only go so low.

1. Richard Nixon: 1968-1973: There is really not much to say here, but I have that feeling that this still might be a long paragraph. Just looking at his photograph, the man looks untrustworthy and a little  creepy, but we do not make judgements based solely on the looks of a person...at least i hope we do not. my evaluation of his presidency has me conclude that his one claim to misfortune is the Watergate Scandal. the rest of his Presidency I would rank around above average down to meh, with the only above average move being his resignation..that's a joke... actually it was getting the US out of Vietnam. the rest of his presidency was okay, just the typical presidency. Back to what ruined his presidency though. He made the extremely horrible decision to wiretap his opponents  and others that they felt like they could not trust. This is what broke the trust ( there might be other things too but let's stay focused) This is where he went wrong, i mean aside from being a Republican.  He cheated his way into his second term. The huge issue behind this is that a man can do 1,000 honest deeds and be a great man, but if that same man do but one dishonest deed, he forever loses the confidence of his fellow man. if he was willing to go that low to win, then what else is he hiding? how can we be for sure that he is not hiding anything else? So..sorry to say this Dick..but you are on the Shame list. in better news we no longer condone such actions, in fact we encourage them.
   
2. Andrew Johnson: 1865-1868: So when it comes to terrible, this guy takes the cake, his is the guy that gets the 44th place on this list of greatest presidents, and only because he was president. How did he get into office? well while it can be argued that no one really voted for him, they actually did. His name was on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln. But in everyone's defense the media was not as strong as it is today, and apparently his assassin got drunk and didn't show up.  One of his downfalls is following someone as great as Abraham Lincoln. He got the presidency after Lincoln was assassinated  by a confederate sympathizer...but lets talk about what made him a terrible president. The best way that I can look at it is that he was two-faced. He felt as if Lincoln's plan for reconstruction was too lenient. But then he turns around and..denies african american males citizenship. I am sorry was this what the "Civil War" was all about? Aside from that he allowed the southern states to choose their leaders, and it somehow came about as a surprise when they chose their confederate leaders?What puts him down here is his unwillingness to push the agenda that needed to be pushed, that should have been pushed. His biggest blunder  is considered to be the "Civil Rights Bill of 1866", the issue here is that the conservative republicans were wanting to push this bill, and he vetoed it.
   
   I know right? crazy!
    Luckily though his vetoed was canceled and the bill did end up going through. A supporter of the North during the Civil War which was supposedly  fought to free the slaves, did not want to give them rights? not to mention fight any attempt to give them rights? That, my friend earns you the bottom of the list.

America is indeed a great country, full of great citizens, some of which make it to become the leader of the free world. Most of these people were great men. two of them..not so much. But the point of this  post was not so much to say who was terrible and who isn't. The point is we need to be more careful in how we judge the people who were, are or will be president. when making this judgements we need to put our opinions aside and be respectful to them. Many of the people I know that make these critical judgements would not be able to handle one day as president, and thats a fact. I would be the first to admit that I would not be able to handle it, at least not now, While many jokes were made, and some snarky comments about certain parties were made. the point still stands. Also the fact that most of these people have done more good in their lives than most of us. Even though that they are more remembered for their mistakes, they still did do some good, otherwise how did they get there? instead of wasting your time hating these men, or anyone else find the good in them, and praise that good. You will find your life maybe just a little bit more enjoyable.

So this is the post. I hope that it was enjoyed, or at least read all the way through. I mean I did put a lot of effort into this. Good Day!

First world problems

this is pretty much the future we face

So, those who know me, and those that I am closer to  probably got this before everyone else, But I still want to take the time to share this with the internet.
 So, one day I was driving home from work one night when the low fuel light turned on, and there were only two bars left on the gas meter.  at first  this made me unhappy, I started to complain to myself, mainly about how hard it has been, having very little money, the fact that we were barely making bill payments and ( at the time) we had very little in the refrigerator. it was overall a sad experience. but thankfully its in the past, for at least right now.
but  all this made me think about the time I spent outside of the USA ( I know crazy right?) now, while for the most part the experience was comparable to a first world experience...this trip also took me to parts of not so much fortune, fortunes that I have taken for granted. The people that lived in these parts had very little, and yet at the same time they were so giving. they were so willing to give a helping hand to others, while  many of the people  in america will hardly give you a slight glance. We think we have all of these problems, with think we have it so hard and that our lives are miserable.  but in reality, they arn't, they are not even close to miserable, if anything the majority of our problems, if you can call them that, are if anything minor inconveniences.
 Now I am not talking about people on the verge of loosing their home, that  have empty cupboards and out of a job and are unemployed. those are actual problems.  although   there are many "problems" out there in america that are not actually problems.  more and more I am seeing people complain because

•  they do not have that fancy car they wanted, 
•  they had to wait  5 mins in line to order  food or  to check out at a store ( funny at walmart, that they will not wait 2 min  to get a line in the front of the store but will wait 10 mins to get checked out over in the lawn and garden department). 
• they complain because they cannot afford the fancy foods they want. or that they have to eat the foods that their parents make.
•  the fact that their parents did not buy them the specific item they wanted, they ended up with the generic version, and that wasn't cool, or what ever the lingo is these days
• they complain because their boss actually makes them work for their paychecks. or that they get fired for being a lazy.....you know
• they complain whenever they do not get their way.

to these people I say this: count your lucky stars, every single freaking star, and believe me there is a lot of them.
I have no doubt that this is just an  "Murica" problem. This is a problem anywhere first world luxuries are an easy commodity.
 But this issue isn't just what we want, its how we act. how we treat others. we suffer from the "Me-Factor" the only thing thats important is whats important for me. everything else just does not matter,

•  someone runs you over, regardless of whether it's at the Shopping mall, convenience store or on the sidewalk/ in the road, Thats your problem, its not their fault. you are just in their way, they have a lot of important things they need  to do...like nothing (being lazy)

  

  doing nothing.....reminds me of something..something...I just cannot put my finger on it though...

   
• The fact that walking into Wal-Mart is too much to ask of them, or any store. that takes too much time.  I mean, I am not a big fan either, but its not like someone is going to bite you...slam their cart into yours....take things from your cart and put it in theirs....run you over, then step on top of you...or willing to fight you to the death for that last box of twinkies...because that never happens
• The fact that they cannot take the time to look for the product themselves they walk in and immediately ask an employee where the item is, where in most cases, the item is not that difficult to find.
• if it means they have to earn it or build it themselves they will refuse to do it or buy it. I recollect a customer that came in wanting to buy a lawnmower but the customer wanted the display because putting it together from the box "was going to be too much effort" I let them know the only assembly needed is to lift the folded handle bars up and tighten the bolts down at the joint, which they replied that even that was too much work... the kicker here, the displays were kept the same way as they are in the box, so they would have to do it anyways. 
• No respect for parentagers, or for their elders in any fashion: You can argue this not really counting as  first world problems, but it is a direct byproduct of it, I mean aside from really horrible parenting 
  
  but I mean...REALLY terrible parenting 

 I often ask myself, "what happened to the Working generation? What happened to the mentality that you earn what you get. Now I understand that I am a part of this generation, and that the generation(s) that I am talking about (people born 1959 and back) so there is no chance I can really understand this, right? WRONG. Because as you know, or would like to know  two things

1. I am a historian/ history major: I love to study history, so naturally I would know this is how people were at one point, I mean you do not get through a depression by sitting on your...
2. I actually listen to the stories  my grandparents have to say that they learned, and things they and their parents(my great grandparents) went through, AND any what they did (actually worked) to get through the tough times
3.  (just because) I was also raised differently than most, I was taught to do my part, and expected to help out

DING DING DING. I think I found the root of the problem.   The deal is that our Parents, grandparents or great grandparents ( depending on when you were born) went through actual tough times, the time I am thinking in particular is The Great Depression, you could even add the the Great Dust Bowl. They actually struggled and had to actually work hard for survival really, and then there is us (1960-present). there are two main factors  that I think contributed to this.

1. Technology:  While technology has gotten really great, there was that time that you actually had to wait for thing, now everything is instantaneous that is what people expect they want their cake and they want to eat it too...right now, all of the  learning process of learning to do it yourself, all of the  enjoying the experience is gone..why enjoy the scenic route  when the interstate will take you where you want to go, and so much faster. 

   

   yes, it saddens me I missed out on such a beautiful experience 

2. Fast food industry and credit cards: This goes hand in hand with Technology, but this also embedded the idea of  I can get it now ( lets even ignore the health concerns) we have gotten ourselves to the point where asking someone to wait five minutes is asking WAY too much

 We Do not have problems people, we have minor inconveniences and thats all.  we as a country are so well off that, our complaints are: "I am paying too much money at the gas pumps," etc. We are forgetting that this is not just the land of liberty freedoms, and the pursuit of happiness, but also  the land of opportunity, it is for that very reason that many of our ancestors came to this great nation. because it  is here that we have the opportunity for great things. But the catch is we have to work for it. We need to earn it.  But we lost that notion, somewhere in the hussle and bussle of life, now we just want it given to us...because this is "Murica" and we all are lazy......