ASSASSINATIONS THREATS AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: FROM ANDREW JACKSON TO BARACK OBAMA

Seven Years Of “The Progressive Professor”, 4,900 Entries, And Counting!

Ronald 9 Comments

Today, August 11, marks seven years of “The Progressive Professor”!

Over these seven years, there have been precisely 4,900 entries, with this entry being that number!

It has been fun doing this blog, and I thank those who have read it, continue to read it, and those who have participated and contributed in comments, numbering almost 9,350 in the past seven years.

With my book–“Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama”, Rowman Littlefield Publishers, coming out on this Saturday, August 15, I will be engaged in publicity on radio, tv/cable, and in print and on the internet, and will share links, both audio and visual, which will be placed on my blog on the right hand side, along with those radio interviews already there in the past, and my video lectures at Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter campus, on the Presidencies of Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

I hope many of my readers will listen and look at these interviews and programs as they are added, and I will be very busy doing lectures and book signings over time, which means there might be days when in travel or being overly occupied, I will not add an entry.

But one can be sure that I will be active on this blog, as it now enters Year Number 8!

So thanks everyone, and hope you will continue to follow me, read me, listen to me, and watch me over the next months and years!

Memory Of The Two Assassination Attempts Against Gerald Ford In September 1975

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Today is the 41st anniversary of Gerald Ford becoming President, upon the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Ford’s historical reputation has risen as the years have gone by, with the major contribution he made, besides restoring faith and stability in the American Presidency, being his brilliant appointment of Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, who served on Court from 1975 to 2010, and lives on today in retirement at age 95.

But also part of the Ford story was the reality of his facing two assassination attempts by women within 17 days in September 1975—Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme on September 5, 1975; and then 17 days later by Sara Jane Moore on September 22, 1975.

The details of these two assassination attempts comprise Chapter 13 of my forthcoming book–“Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama”, Rowman Littlefield Publishers, to be released this coming Saturday, August 15.

A 30 percent discount offer from the publisher, Rowman Littlefield, is available on this website, using the code 4M15ATAP, and the book will ship after August 15.

First Radio Interviews For My Book: “Assassinations, Threats, And The American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson To Barack Obama” Scheduled!

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It is 18 days until my book, “Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama” is published and available.

But I have just been informed that I have eight radio interviews already scheduled—radio stations in Knoxville, Tennessee; Boston, Massachusetts; Online Radio with host formerly from Seattle, Washington radio station; Memphis, Tennessee; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York, New York (this one 60 minutes live); a syndicated podcast via i tunes national; and Online/YouTube and eventually uploaded to YouTube on the Author/Story Channel (30 minutes on Skype).

The interviews will range from four of 10 minutes each; one of 20 minutes; one of 25 minutes; one of 30 minutes; and one of 60 minutes.

Hopefully, most, if not all of these interviews, and others to follow, will be available, eventually, and be put on this blog, and would be accessed from the right side Blogroll under Interviews and/or Videos.

Donald Trump Inviting Personal Danger With His Incendiary Rhetoric: The Cases Of Huey Long And George Wallace As Case Studies!

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Donald Trump is, sadly, inviting personal danger with his incendiary rhetoric on the campaign trail.

Trump is a “loose cannon”. who makes statements without thinking of their implications, and while many people see him as entertainment, he is dangerously treading a line that could lead to the danger of threats against his life.

That is the last thing this nation needs, and yet Trump has his own protective forces, but history tells us that no matter how much protection one might have, all that a potential assassin needs is one “lucky break”.

Historically, we have had two Presidential candidates who stirred up emotions in people in such a divisive way that they faced assassination.

Chapter 7 of my forthcoming book, on August 15, “Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama” (Rowman Littlefield), deals with the assassination of Senator Huey Long of Louisiana, gunned down on September 8, 1935.

Chapter 11 of the book details the attempted assassination of Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama on May 15, 1972. Wallace survived, but was paralyzed for life, and had annual surgeries to attempt to relieve unremitting pain for the last 26 years of his life.

One would hope that Trump would lower the rhetoric level, so as to cut down the change of danger to his personal security, no matter what one thinks of Trump and his views!

Huey Long, Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace, Donald Trump—The Art Of Demagoguery!

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It is now clear that we have in our midst a true demagogue—a person who appeals to the insecurity and disillusionment of many Americans about the direction of their nation in domestic and foreign policy.

We have had this before, and it always ends in disaster and loss of reputation, without accomplishing anything beneficial in the short run or the long run.

We had Senator Huey Long of Louisiana in the early 1930s, who gained a following of millions, talked about “Every Man A King” in the midst of the Great Depression. He ended up being assassinated in 1935 while seeking the Presidency. This is covered in Chapter 7 of my forthcoming book, “Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama”, from Rowman Littlefield, to be published and available on August 15.

We had Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin in the early 1950s, when there was the ongoing Cold War with the Soviet Union, exploited as an issue, causing the destruction of the lives and reputations of millions of Americans without any justification. It ended up with the collapse and repudiation of the Red Scare, and the early death of McCarthy from alcoholism.

We had Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who divided the nation over racial integration and civil rights, and won five states in the Electoral College in the Presidential Election of 1968, and then was shot and paralyzed for life during the Presidential Election campaign of 1972. This tragedy, ironically, led to a reformed Wallace who changed his view on civil rights as a result of his own handicapped condition as a result of the assassination attempt. I cover this in Chapter 11 of my forthcoming book on August 15, which I have listed the title and publisher two paragraphs above this one.

Now we have Donald Trump, who is promoting racism and nativism, and since he is super wealthy, his ability to influence the public view is, in many ways, more dangerous than any of the above demagogues.

Just as with the others, Trump will fail in the long run, but will be very dangerous in the short run. Let us hope that his demise will not be brought about in the fashion that occurred for Huey Long and George Wallace! We wish him good health and long life, but want him out of the political fray, because he has nothing positive to offer America, just negativism and division!

The Crisis In Presidential Security: The Shortcomings Of The Secret Service Made Bare!

Ronald 2 Comments

We wake up today to the shock that a “Fence Jumper” at the White House last night, September 19, 2014, managed to scale the fence at the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House and rush forward without any Secret Service reaction, and managed to reach the North Portico of the White House, and actually enter the doors of the White House, before being tackled and seized.

Nothing like this has ever happened before at the White House, although there have been many “Fence Jumpers”, consistently, since the Presidency of Richard Nixon onward!

Luckily, President Obama and his daughters had just left the White House and were on a helicopter on the South Lawn on the way to the Presidential retreat, Camp David, for the weekend, with First Lady Michelle Obama apparently elsewhere out of town.

Imagine if this intruder had been able to approach the President and his daughters!

Luckily, the “Fence Jumper” had no weapon on him, but that was pure luck, but it is clear he had to be mentally deranged, and COULD have been a threat to our 44th President.

Obama has already faced more threats, although none face to face, but the total is at least 40 such threats known publicly, but with indications that he has actually faced thousands of death threats in his less than six years in office, more than anyone since Abraham Lincoln!

This blogger and author has just sent to his publisher, who sought him out,  his manuscript on the threats to Presidents.  The book will be published in mid May to early June by Rowman & Littlefield, and will be entitled: ASSASSINATIONS, THREATS, AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: FROM ANDREW JACKSON TO BARACK OBAMA.  This author and blogger has just requested an extra paragraph to be added, regarding this latest threat to President Obama.

The book will cover 16 Presidents who were assassinated, or wounded, or unhurt, or indirectly threatened over the course of American history, and will also include three Presidential candidates who were struck down–Huey P. Long, who was assassinated in September 1935 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Los Angeles in June 1968; and George C. Wallace, who was shot, wounded, and paralyzed for life in Laurel, Maryland in 1972.  So a total of 19 leaders are examined for the death threats, sadly successful in six cases, wounded in three cases, and ten remaining unhurt.

Additionally, there will be a concluding chapter that examines “Fifteen ‘Might Have Been’ Presidents”, who, if history had been different, might have become President, including ten Vice Presidents; two Secretaries of State; one Speaker of the House of Representatives; one President Pro Tempore of the Senate; and one United States Senator.

The book will be a good read, and I hope my readers will consider reading it when it is available in late Spring-early Summer!