Dwight D. Eisenhower

On The SemiQuincentennial Anniversary Of America, A Salute To Immigration Which Is The Nation’s Lifeblood Long Term!

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Here we are, on America’s Semiquincentennial Anniversary, and the immediate thought that comes to mind is that America is what it is today, the greatest experiment in democracy in world history, and so much of it due to IMMIGRATION, from all over the world.

In the past, there was discrimination and prejudice against Irish and German immigrants in the 1840s-1850s; the Jewish and Italian and Polish immigrants in the 1870s-1920s; Asian immigration and Hispanic immigration through most of American history; and Middle Eastern and African immigrants in recent decades.

But through all of the ups and downs of immigration history, it was such immigrants of all stripes and backgrounds who contributed mightily to American progress, and made the nation a better place.

We live in a time of overt racism and nativism, but the nation will, over time, get past this.

When one studies the history of immigration, one finds a primarily “welcoming” attitude overall by Presidents of all political persuasions until the 1880s-1890s; again in the 1920s and early 1930s; and again since the rise of Donald Trump.

The Presidents most negative toward immigration include:

Chester Alan Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Donald Trump.

Notice with the exception of Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson (who were Democrats), all of the remaining 9 nativist Presidents were Republicans.

At the same time, Republicans, such as Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush were very open minded and tolerant on immigration.

While immigration is a negative right now under Donald Trump, one can be quite assured that in the long run, the role and contributions of immigrants will, once again, triumph in the post Donald Trump years.

The Barack Obama Presidential Center In Chicago Opens!

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On Thursday, June 18, there was a three hour opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

There were lots of entertainers performing; the presence of all three former Presidents and First Ladies; and magnificent speeches by both Michelle Obama and Barack Obama.

As the Obama Presidential Center opens, as it did on Friday, June 19, the Juneteenth national holiday, public opinion polls show Obama is the most popular former President, and his wife is regarded as an exceptional First Lady.

Of course, Fox News Channel and Donald Trump badmouthed the event, but it did not succeed, and never will, to undermine the accomplishments, common decency, empathy, and principles of the 44th President and his wife.

This author and blogger hopes to visit the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago at some point in 2027, adding to the list of Presidential sites he has visited, which include all Presidents in modern times, except Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and George H. W. Bush

Trump Vanity Projects Add Massive Costs, And Against American Historical Traditions!

Ronald 27 Comments

Donald Trump is on a rampage to have as many “Vanity” projects as possible, defying history, where only leaders who have passed away, and have high regard of the American people, have projects and buildings named after them.

Trump has destroyed the East Wing of the White House, in his mad dash for a massive 90,000 square foot Ballroom, that would overwhelm the historic building of 226 years.

Trump has also destroyed the Rose Garden, one of the major attractions of the White House.

Additionally, he has promoted a 250 foot Triumphal Arch;

renamed the John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts to include his name;

adding his name to the US Institute of Peace;

is renovating the Reflecting Pool of the Lincoln Memorial;

painting the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to be as white as the White House, even though it has always been granite;

a proposed National Garden of American Heroes;

banners on federal buildings of his portrait;

wishing to have Penn Station in New York City and Dulles International Airport in Virginia renamed after him;

proposal to have American Passports with his face on them;

along with wish to create a $250 bill with his face on the currency, when that only happens for leaders who have passed away.

The extent of his self aggrandizement and ego promotion is unprecedented, and no past President would endorse it, not even Richard Nixon, and would be particularly condemned by the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan.

What Trump is promoting reminds one more of the ancient Roman Empire; King Louis XIV of France; and Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany.

In a new development, the federal courts have intervened to attempt to end control of the Kennedy Center and the adding of Donald Trump’s name;

and are resisting the “Weaponization” proposal to award financial damages to January 6 Insurrectionists, a proposal that many Republicans in the US Senate are now working to prevent.

While for now, there is no final decision on these matters, finally, we are seeing an organized attempt to rein in the reckless activities of Donald Trump, and it is a good sign for the preservation of American democracy and the rule of law.

Donald Trump Presidency Easily The Most Corrupt In American History, Bar None!

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If there was any doubt about the level of corruption of Donald Trump in his first term in the Presidency from 2017-2021, his one year and four months so far of his second term, with two thirds of the term still ahead of us, settles the issue. It has escalated to the certainty of a multitude of observers, that his Presidency is the ultimate level of corruption without any debate on other Presidents and their administrations.

It is also fact that there can be no debate that the Presidencies that stand out as corrupt are all Republican Presidents.

Richard Nixon’s Presidency was seen as the worst and most corrupt, but now Trump replaces Nixon at the top of the list, without any debate.

Once we get past Trump and Nixon, the remaining Presidencies with high levels of corruption, would include

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
George W. Bush (2001-2009)

No other Republican President comes close to the level of corruption and scandal of the above six Republican Presidents.

So Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush are not to be compared with the horrendous record of the six Republican Presidents who had large scale illegalities in their administrations.

And one would have to scrape very far to find any Democratic President since Andrew Jackson established the “Spoils System” in the 1830s to attempt to put any leaders of that party on the level of corruption being discussed here.

There is no such thing as perfection, but other than personal scandal, sometimes known in their lifetime, and other times not known, not one Democratic President—Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden—comes anywhere near the scandal ridden times of the six Republican Presidents.

Analyzing Age Of Democratic Presidential Nominees 1828 To The Present!

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The issue of age has been in the forefront of Presidential politics, as a result of the clear decline in office of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the two oldest Presidents ever elected.

When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, just weeks short of age 70 at the Inauguration in January 1981, it was a controversial issue, particularly right after the failed Assassination attempt of March 30, 1981, which clearly had some effect on his health over time, as signs of early Alzheimers seemed evident to many in Reagan’s last two years, including to his son Ron Reagan.

It had been pointed out that Dwight D. Eisenhower, leaving the Presidency in January 1961 at age 70 and three months, had stated that no one older than himself should be President.

But as it turned out, we have now had three “elderly” Presidents in the past half century—Reagan, Trump, Biden.

This issue has caused this author and blogger to conduct research on the age of Democratic Presidential nominees, whether winner or losers of the Presidency, going back to the beginnings of the Democratic Party under Andrew Jackson in the 1828 Presidential Election through the Presidential Election of 2024.

The record shows the following for all Democratic Presidential contenders, including first time for those nominated more than once. Altogether, 36 individuals have been Democratic Party nominees, but only 15 have ever been elected President, including two who first succeeded upon the death of the incumbent President—Harry Truman after Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson after John F. Kennedy.

1828–Andrew Jackson—61
1836–Martin Van Buren–54
1844–James K. Polk–49
1848–Lewis Cass–66
1852–Franklin Pierce–48
1856–James Buchanan–65
1860–Stephen Douglas–47
1864–George McClellan–38
1868–Horatio Seymour–58
1872–Horace Greeley–61
1876–Samuel Tilden–62
1880–Winfield Scott Hancock–56
1884–Grover Cleveland–47
1896–William Jennings Bryan–36
1904–Alton Parker–52
1912–Woodrow Wilson–56
1920–James Cox–50
1924–John W. Davis–51
1928–Alfred E. Smith–55
1932–Franklin D. Roosevelt–51
1945–Harry Truman 60 Upon Succession
1952–Adlai Stevenson–52
1960–John F. Kennedy–43
1963–Lyndon B. Johnson–55 Upon Succession
1968–Hubert Humphrey–57
1972–George McGovern–50
1976–Jimmy Carter–52
1984–Walter Mondale–56
1988–Michael Dukakis–55
1992–Bill Clinton–46
2000–Al Gore–52
2004–John Kerry–61
2008–Barack Obama–47
2016–Hillary Clinton–69
2020–Joe Biden–78
2024–Kamala Harris–60

Of course, age longevity and overall good health is much improved over what it was in the 19th and 20th centuries, but the clear indication is that most Democratic Presidential nominees were under the age of 60 when first nominated for those who had more than one nomination.

Nine of these Democratic nominees were in their 60s, and only Lewis Cass in 1848 (66), James Buchanan in 1856 (65), and Hillary Clinton in 2016 (age 69), were above the age of 62.

And all by himself is Joe Biden in 2020 (age 78)!

So the two oldest Democratic nominees were the last two who ran against Donald Trump, the oldest Republican nominee, although both Clinton and Biden had tried for the nomination of their party when younger, Clinton in 2008 at age 61, and Joe Biden in 1988 at age 46 and again in 2008 at age 66.

Nine of these Democratic nominees were in their 30s and 40s, with the youngest being William Jennings Bryan in 1896 (36) and George McClellan in 1864 (38), and six of the other seven being elected President–James K. Polk in 1844 (49); Franklin Pierce in 1852 (48); Grover Cleveland in 1884 (47); John F. Kennedy in 1960 (43); Bill Clinton in 1992 (46); and Barack Obama in 2008 (47). Only Stephen Douglas in 1860 (47) failed to win the Presidency, and ironically died just four months after the inauguration of his opponent, Abraham Lincoln.

The remaining 17 Democratic nominees were in their 50s, with only five winning the White House—Martin Van Buren 1836 (54); Woodrow Wilson 1912 (56); Franklin D. Roosevelt 1932 (51); Lyndon B. Johnson 1963 upon Succession (55); and Jimmy Carter in 1976 (52).

In summary, 15 Democrats have been elected President, with 11 of them being in their 40s or 50s, and the only exceptions older are: Andrew Jackson (61); James Buchanan (66); Harry Truman (60) upon Succession; and Joe Biden (78).

So in conclusion, it is clear that the best strategy for the Democratic Party in 2028 is to nominate a candidate ideally younger than 61, or at the most age 64, but with 11 potential nominees being in their 50s in 2028, as compared to 4 between 39 and 49 in 2028, and 4 between 61 and 64 in 2028.

The Total Preposterous And Outrageous “Prager University” Presidential Rankings Survey!

Ronald 20 Comments

The Right Wing Propaganda Organ known as “Prager University”, which is NOT a university, but a well financed attempt to distort the reality of American history, extol the virtues of unbridled capitalism, work against “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion”, and undermine science, has come out with a 2026 Ranking of American Presidents.

Anyone who would believe the virtues or veracity of this listing needs their heads examined, as it is a total distortion of the office of the Presidency to the extreme imaginable!

All Presidents except William Henry Harrison (one month) and James A. Garfield (6 months) are included, but with the decision NOT to include Donald Trump, even though he finished his first term five years ago, but using the excuse that he is presently in office, so not to be placed in the listing for now.

One can be certain when a later version of this so called “Ranking” is published in the future, Donald Trump will end up very high on the list, probably in the top five, based on the crazy order of the Presidents compiled by the propagandists promoting this pure trash of a listing.

So without listing every President, let’s look at the most significant cases of total distortion.

The survey starts off with George Washington Number 1 and Abraham Lincoln Number 2, but after that, the listing goes totally awry.

Ronald Reagan is Number 3, which is a major distortion of reality, but then is followed by, of all people, Calvin Coolidge at Number 4. That is an example of how wacky this survey is, when examined in detail. No one who has any intelligence would rate Coolidge as anything more than in the bottom third of the Presidents.

The rest of the top 10 are in order—Thomas Jefferson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, James Monroe, James Madison, John Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt. Monroe, Madison and John Adams in most cases would be in the middle of the second ten, not the top ten, but otherwise, not terrible, except to put Coolidge above the Founding Father Presidents and Theodore Roosevelt, as well! How crazy can one get?

Harry Truman is rated Number 12, behind Grover Cleveland at Number 11, which seems ridiculous, followed by Andrew Jackson as Number 13 and James K. Polk as Number 15, both who have otherwise collapsed to lower than Number 20 with recent reevaluations that have caused their rapid decline. Ulysses S. Grant is Number 14, higher than the rise he has gained in legitimate rankings.

John F. Kennedy ends up Number 18 and Franklin D. Roosevelt as Number 20, with of all people, William Howard Taft in between as Number 19, clearly totally lacking in reality.

The Two Bushes, HW and W are Numbers 21 and 22, with Bill Clinton behind them as Number 23, followed by the largely unimpressive many Presidents that have been ranked low for many decades in surveys.

But once we reach the 31-42 range, the bottom of the list, we discover Lyndon B. Johnson Number 35 behind Herbert Hoover Number 33, as well as behind Gerald Ford Number 27 and Richard Nixon Number 29. How crazy can one get to come up with such rankings?

And it gets worse, as Woodrow Wilson is Number 37, followed by Barack Obama Number 38, Jimmy Carter Number 39, and then followed by two Presidents who belong in the bottom, Andrew Johnson Number 40 and James Buchanan Number 41. One might be harshly critical of Wilson, who has declined in rankings in recent years, but to put him in the bottom six of all Presidents is preposterous! And placing Obama and Carter in this bottom group is outrageous beyond belief and reality!

But one might ask, well, who is the absolute bottom at Number 42, and it is, unbelievably, Joe Biden! Whether one admires Joe Biden’s Presidency or not, to put him dead last is the height of craziness, not based on facts!

Notice that the three recent Presidents who demonstrated compassion, empathy, common decency and humanity, morals, ethics, and had no corruption—Obama, Carter, Biden—end up in the bottom five of these listings, which is testimony to how disgraceful this listing of Presidents really is!

This so called “Prager University” Poll is total garbage, and no serious scholar or intelligent citizen would accept the presposterous and outrageous compiling of this propaganda organ, that deserves to be disposed of as extremist and lunatic in nature!

Presidents Day 2026: Need For Updated Assessment, And One Scholar’s Viewpoint!

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Presidents Day is tomorrow, Monday, February 16, a good time, after a full year of the second Presidency of Donald Trump, and one retirement year of Joe Biden, to reassess rankings of Presidents, particularly recent Chief Executives.

C Span is likely in process of reassessing its rankings of Presidents, last done in 2021, as Joe Biden became President, and Donald Trump became, at the time, a former President who had been defeated for reelection, but mounted an illegal, unconstitutional attempt to overthrow the results of the Presidential Election of 2020 through the US Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021.

There can be disagreement over many Presidents and their rankings, but with the reality that in recent years, the following Presidents have seen their stock rise in assessments of scholars, in chronological order:

Ulysses S. Grant
Harry Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Lyndon B. Johnson

At the same time, the following Presidents have seen their stock fall lower in assessments of scholars, in chronological order:

Andrew Jackson
James K. Polk
Woodrow Wilson
Ronald Reagan

In the view of this scholar, author, and blogger, the thought is that the following recent Presidents will be likely to benefit the most in the future in rise in rankings from where they are presently, in chronological order:

Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
Barack Obama
Joe Biden

But the debate over Presidential performance will continue, certainly, to be heatedly debated for the long term future.

The US Senate: Highly Undemocratic, And More So In Future With 15 States Having 70 Percent Of Population, But Only 30 Seats In Senate

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The future of American democracy is in danger from more than Donald Trump and an extremist right wing majority on the US Supreme Court.

The US Senate, considered the greatest legislative institution in the world, has, from its inception, been highly undemocratic in nature, with its idea of states rights, and every state having the same amount of representation.

So in a nation that now has 340 million people, we have the 15 smallest states in population, all tending to be Republican for a long term, have about 41 million people combined, and have 30 seats in the Senate.

At the same time, California, the largest populated state with about 39 million people, has 2 seats in the Senate.

So the estimate is that by 2040, only 15 years from now, 70 percent of the United States will be represented by just 30 US Senators, while the remaining Americans, disproportionately whiter, older, and more rural, will have 70 US Senators.

This will make progress and revival of policies and programs, that are now rapidly being demolished, ever the harder to achieve.

This means the great advances of American democracy from the time of Democratic and Republican Presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden will, in many cases, be permanently impossible to revive, due to the deleterious effect of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump on American democracy and the rule of law.

Trump Systematically Destroying All Reforms From Progressive Era Onward!

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Donald Trump is systematically destroying all reforms from the Progressive Era onward, with particular attention to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts has been a willing participant in this reversal of all of the great changes that promoted equality and justice, which became about after nearly a century since the Civil War of continued violation of basic human rights to African Americans and other minorities, including women and gay and lesbian Americans.

This is a very emotional time, as Donald Trump is moving full stream ahead, to return America to the late 19th century Gilded Age, where multi millionaires dominated the economy without any government regulation, and where racial discrimination and lack of basic human rights to anyone other than white male Christians predominated.

Trump and his supporters in the most despicable and corrupt Cabinet in American history are actively destroying

the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era reforms that he initiated, through his Square Deal and New Nationalism proposals and actions.

the reforms of Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom legislation.

undermining the social justice reforms of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt ;

and the Fair Deal of Harry Truman;

and the civil rights advancements of Dwight D. Eisenhower;

and the ideals of the New Frontier of John F. Kennedy;

and the overwhelming reforms in so many areas of public life of the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson;

and the many initiatives of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden toward major reform initiatives.

Trump has declared war on common decency and humanity, and has ushered in an American Fascism, reminiscent of Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, Juan Peron, and other right wing dictators.

The danger that there will not be free and fair elections, and the attempt to promote midstream Texas gerrymandering to weaken an opposition Democratic Party challenge to the authoritarianism taking place, is totally horrifying and depressing!

Gerald Ford, Succeeding Richard Nixon 51 Years Ago, Saved The Presidency!

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Gerald Ford, the 38th President, succeeded Richard Nixon 51 years ago, and saved the Presidency.

Appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment, and approved by both houses of Congress in a bipartisan manner, Gerald Ford was the right person to be next in line after the resignation of the corrupt Spiro Agnew in October 1973, in the midst of the crisis of the Watergate Scandal, that eventually brought Richard Nixon to resign from the Presidency.

Ford was a 25 year member of the House of Representatives, and Republican House Minority Leader for nine years, when he was elevated to the Vice Presidency.

Ford handled himself in an appropriate manner, in his 8 months as Vice President, and he represented basic decency and honesty as the successor to Richard Nixon.

His wife Betty stands out as the most outstanding Republican First Lady in her public role in modern times, and while Ford was only President for less than two and a half years, he elevated the office for the future.

We could only wish that Mike Pence in the first Donald Trump term, or JD Vance now in the second Trump term, had the principles, decency, and ethical and moral standing that Gerald Ford presented.

Ford was not perfect, of course, and two of his young aides at the time, later, sadly, became highly controversial, under President George W. Bush. Dick Cheney as Vice President, and Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, did not do appropriately by their offices, with both seen as abusing power. But this was a quarter century after they were aides under Ford.

Ford also took the controversial action of pardoning Richard Nixon, still a center of debate as to the wisdom of such action. Certainly, it helped to lead to Ford’s defeat by Jimmy Carter in the Presidential Election Of 1976.

At the same time, Ford appointed one of the best modern Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, with Justice John Paul Stevens, who served the third longest on the Court in its history at 35 years, and retiring at the age of 90, second oldest in retirement. Unfortunately, present Republican appointments, all six of them, by Presidents George H W Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, have been major tragedies and disappointments.

Ford also signed the Helsinki Accords in 1975 with the Soviet Union, marking a move toward detente in the Cold War.

Overall, this author and blogger would say that Ford was the most decent modern Republican President, since the time of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

His historical reputation, and that of his wife, as a decent Presidential couple, shines a half century later.