When I was born in 1951, Democrat Harry Truman was our President. He won his race in 1948 amid a contentious election with Governor Thomas Dewey of New York. Dewey was favored to win, but Truman’s dogged campaigning snatched victory from what appeared to be the jaws of defeat.
In 1952, General Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, defeated Democrat Governor Adlai Stevenson. It was a forgone conclusion given the five-star general’s heroic service in WWII, and Stevenson’s uninspiring personality, his brilliance notwithstanding. In 1956, they would rematch. The result was the same. Ike was popular, trusted, and personable. A nice personality frequently defeats an aloof intellect.
In 1960, the nation voted for youthfulness and a new direction by electing another WWII hero and Democrat Senator John Kennedy over then Republican Vice-President Richard Nixon. Kennedy was inspiring, handsome, and well-spoken. Nixon was the opposite but was knowledgeable and experienced. Nevertheless, by a razor-thin margin, charismatic youth defeated conventional competence.
In 1964, Democrat Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who assumed office after Kennedy’s assassination, was the overwhelming choice over Republican Senator Barry Goldwater. Johnson was a known quantity and viewed as a continuance of the Kennedy legacy, whereas Goldwater was successfully portrayed as extreme, warlike, and out of step with the emerging liberalism of the 1960s.
By 1968, anti-war sentiments over Vietnam drove Johnson from the race and Nixon reentered the presidential sweepstakes to defeat former Johnson Vice President Hubert Humphery. The former was viewed as able to end the Vietnam War honorably. The latter was likely to continue its mishandling. Perceived competence overcame perceived incompetence.
In 1972, the nation was emerging from the Vietnam War and Nixon’s popularity was high among voters who were very uncomfortable with the domestic violence by anti-war and civil rights activists. Democrat Senator George McGovern was crushed, losing everywhere except Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Liberalism lost to conventional wisdom.
By 1976, Nixon had resigned in disgrace after the scandalous and half-witted Watergate break-in looking for “dirt” on McGovern. It was a political embarrassment and the coverup by Nixon would lead to his resignation and the eventual election of Democrat Governor Jimmy Carter. The Georgian was fresh and an ethical Christian southerner who eschewed racism. He defeated President Gerald Ford who had assumed office after Nixon and pardoned him, an act unsupported by those who disparaged Nixon.
In 1976, the nation realized that Carter’s abilities in domestic and foreign affairs was substandard at best and egregious at worse, particularly his handling of the Iran hostage crisis. America turned to an amiable actor, Republican Governor Ronald Reagan. An inspiring, commonsense conservative, he renewed the economy while defeating Russia in the Cold War. It was the best of times for America.
After two terms, Reagan’s Vice President George H. W. Bush was elected in 1988. An experience leader and diplomat, he defeated the feckless Democrat Governor Michael Dukakis.
In 1992, despite a sterling military victory over Iraq’s Saddam Hussein by a coalition assembled by Bush in the 1991 Gulf War, America turned to a populist Democrat Governor, Bill Clinton, to take us beyond the Cold War era to a new future. Clinton would be elected twice, but left the White House damaged by a sexual dalliance with a White House intern.
By 2000, American returned to the Bush family again. Thinking better of the Clinton years, America slimly elected Republican Governor George W. Bush. His presidency was dominated by the wars that followed 9-11.
And just as anti-war sentiment elected Nixon, in 2008 America’s first black President, Democrat Senator Barack Obama, would win approval from a war-weary nation also worried about a flagging economy. Obama would win two terms, the first over an aging and uninspiring Senator John McCain, the second in 2012 over an equally bland Mitt Romney.
This brings us to 2016 when Clintonian exhaustion soured voters on the idea of electing former Obama Secretary of State Democrat Hillary Clinton as President. Instead, we turned to a harsh-tongued outsider real-estate magnate who rode down to victory via an escalator in Manhattan. President Donald Trump triumphed. His opponents despised him—especially the media—and weaponized the government to beleaguer him with false charges that he had conspired with Russia to win the Presidency. That was a lie. But this so burdened his Presidency that in 2020 many turned to Obama’s Vice President, Joe Biden. A horrible choice. But a combination of Trump hatred and the effects of a worldwide pandemic on the economy defeated Trump. He lost. So did America in elevating Biden.
Now what will be our fate? A 2024 rematch? The prospects are real. And we could find ourselves either re-electing a corrupt, doddering, and superannuated dolt or a self-absorbed—and potentially—convicted felon. We’ve come a long and torturous way since Harry Truman.
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