James Monroe

Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, And First Term Nominations: All But Monroe, FDR, George W. Bush!

Ronald 12 Comments

This blogger heard the statement of Ralph Nader, a guest on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” HBO show recently, that if only the Democrats had won the 2004 Presidential Election, the Supreme Court would have been dramatically different than it is today!

Present Secretary of State John Kerry lost to George W. Bush, who became only the third President to have to wait until his second term of office to nominate and confirm a Supreme Court Justice! Bush proceeded to select Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, who have together had a dramatic effect on Court decisions in a very right wing manner!

Only James Monroe and Franklin D. Roosevelt failed to have a Supreme Court nominee in their first term, and only William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and Jimmy Carter were unable to make any appointments to the high Court, due to lack of vacancies. Even President James A. Garfield, shot after four months in office, had an appointee to the Supreme Court after two months in office! And FDR may not have had appointments in his first term, but he ended up having a total of nine appointments between 1937 and 1943 over six and a half years!

This is something to keep in mind, the power of the President to affect the Supreme Court’s future, and with the certainty that there will be vacancies on the high Court in the next Presidential term, making the election of a Democrat to the White House, and a Democratic Senate after 2016, ever more urgent!

Secretary Of State: More Prominent Public Figures Historically Than Presidency!

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The Secretary of State serves at the will of the President of the United States, and its ranks have included future Presidents; Presidential candidates who were Secretary of State and later lose the Presidency; Presidential losers who then become Secretary of State; and Presidential contenders who do not get nominated for President, but later become Secretary of State. The Secretary of State also is often a great public figure who becomes notable for his background, without having sought the Presidency. Witness the following:

Presidents who were Secretary of State—Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan

Presidential candidates who were Secretary of State and later lose the Presidency—Henry Clay, James G. Blaine

Presidential Losers who then become Secretary of State—Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Lewis Cass, James G. Blaine, William Jennings Bryan, Charles Evans Hughes, John Kerry

Presidential contenders who do not get nominated for President, but later become Secretary of State—John C. Calhoun, William Seward, Edmund Muskie, Hillary Clinton.

Great public figures notable for their background, without having sought the Presidency, but become Secretary of State—John Marshall, Edward Everett, Hamilton Fish, William Evarts, Richard Olney, John Sherman, John Hay, Elihu Root, Robert Lansing, Frank Kellogg, Henry Stimson, Cordell Hull, James F. Byrnes, George C. Marshall, Dean Acheson, John Foster Dulles, Dean Rusk, Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, George P. Shultz, James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice.

So 42 of the 68 people who have served as Secretary of State are prominent in American history, while some of our 43 Presidents have NOT been notable in their careers or in their Presidency!

Significant Fourths Of July, And The Most Important One Of All!

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It has been 238 years since the Declaration of Independence, declared in Philadelphia on this day in 1776.

Some of the Fourth of Julys that have followed have been more significant than others.

In 1801, the 25th anniversary, the nation celebrated the first turnover of government to the opposition being conducted successfully four months earlier, as Thomas Jefferson succeeded John Adams.

In 1826, the 50th anniversary, Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both intimately involved in the document’s formulation, died, during the administration of Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams.

In 1831, the 55th anniversary, President James Monroe died, marking three of the first five Presidents dying on Independence Day, but it has never occurred since then. This death occurred during the administration of Andrew Jackson.

In 1876, the nation celebrated its first century of independence during the administration of Ulysses S. Grant.

In 1901, the 125th anniversary, the nation celebrated the new century, during the administration of William McKinley.

In 1976, the bicentennial was celebrated during the administration of Gerald Ford.

In 2001, the 225th anniversary was celebrated during the administration of George W. Bush.

But none of these anniversaries mattered as much as July 4, 1863, the 87th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, as the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, fought the three previous days, and won on July 3 by the Union Army over the Confederacy, insured that the Union would be preserved, the ultimate purpose of Abraham Lincoln leading the nation into the Civil War in 1861. The last real chance of the South to win independence was lost, although the war continued for another 21 months.

So July 4, 1863 is more to be celebrated than any other July 4, and we must remain thankful that those who wanted to break up the United States were overcome. We must be ready to react against any threat of further secession put forth by right wing propagandists who want America to lose its whole purpose of creation, the establishment of a democracy which would be the beacon for people all around the world, who would want to come here and be part of the American experiment in freedom. It is immigration that makes, and has made, America the great nation that it is!

47 Vice Presidents, But Only Nine Have Had Two Terms, Including A First, The Last Three Vice Presidents!

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America has had 47 Vice Presidents, but only nine have had two terms of office, including the last three, once Joe Biden completes his term in January 2017!

In fact, NEVER have three Vice Presidents in a row had two terms of office until Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and now Joe Biden, assuming he completes his second term.

Before these three, the only Vice Presidents to have two complete terms were John Adams under George Washington; Daniel Tompkins under James Monroe; Thomas Marshall under Woodrow Wilson; John Nance Garner under Franklin D. Roosevelt; Richard Nixon under Dwight D. Eisenhower; and George H. W. Bush under Ronald Reagan.

Two others–George Clinton under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (dying in the last year of the second term), and John C. Calhoun under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson (resigning with three months left in the Jackson term), nearly finished eight years.

On The Brink Of A Record Not Attained Since 1825–Three Presidents With Eight Years In Office!

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We are on the brink of accomplishing a record in the Presidency which has not occurred since the early days of the Republic–three Presidents in a row finishing eight years in office over 24 years!

The one and only time this happened was the administrations of Democratic Republicans Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809), James Madison (1809-1817), and James Monroe (1817-1825).

With all of the controversies, divisions, emotions involved in the past two plus decades, IF Barack Obama can avoid any assassination threats in the next two and a half years, God willing, he will have done what Bill Clinton (1993-2001) and George W. Bush (2001-2009) did before him, finish two complete terms of office!

We have not even had two Presidents in a row finish two terms of office otherwise, an amazing record, demonstrating the trials and tribulations of the Presidency!

The only other Presidents to finish two consecutive terms of office include: Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan. Of course, FDR was also elected to a third and fourth term in office.

George Washington started his first term 57 days late, so did not complete a full eight years in office, and Grover Cleveland’s two terms were non-consecutive.

Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley were elected President twice, but both were assassinated early in the second term.

Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman inherited most of a term, but were only elected President once.

Richard Nixon was elected twice, but resigned early in his second term due to the Watergate Scandal.

So this is a record, three straight Presidencies over 24 years completed, worthy of note!

Presidential Retirement Years And Constructive Post Presidencies

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All of our Presidents, except for eight who died in office, have had periods of retirement after their years in the Presidency.

Some have had very short periods of retirement, periods of less than ten years, including George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James K, Polk, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester Alan Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

So fully half of our Presidents either died in office or had periods of retirement less than ten years.

On the other hand, the following Presidents had particularly long periods of retirement of fifteen or more years: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H. W. Bush.

The following Presidents had between ten and fifteen years of retirement: Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Ronald Reagan.

Bill Clinton has had 13 years out of office, and George W. Bush has had five years out of office at this time.

With the retirement periods of all of these Presidents listed above, the question that arises is which Presidents made major contributions in their post Presidency years.

That list is a short one:

John Quincy Adams
Martin Van Buren
Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Herbert Hoover
Richard Nixon
Jimmy Carter
Bill Clinton

Adams served nearly eighteen years in Congress.

Van Buren ran for President on the Free Soil Party line in 1848.

Roosevelt ran for President on the Progressive Party line in 1912, and went on an African safari, and explored the Amazon River basin in Brazil.

Taft served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for nine years.

Hoover wrote books and served as an adviser to President Truman on reorganization of the executive branch of government.

Nixon wrote about ten books and remained an adviser on diplomacy in his nearly twenty years in retirement.

Carter has written nearly twenty books, and engaged in diplomacy, promotion of democracy, fought diseases, and built housing through the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity.

Clinton has done similar good deeds through his Clinton Initiative, and also worked on relief for the Haitian earthquake and the Pacific Tsunami with George H. W. Bush.

The contributions of these former Presidents have had a major impact on America, and are worthy of remembrance!

Religion And The Presidency

Ronald 1 Comment

The right wing in America tries to tell us we are a Christian nation, rather than a nation of a majority of the Christian faith.

The fact that the Constitution does not have a religious test, that we have separation of church and state, is ignored, as the right wing promotes its propaganda.

So they tell us the Founding Fathers were “good Christians”, when in fact, in many ways, they were not!

And they fail to accept that many of our Presidents have doubted organized religion entirely, or have been Deist, Unitarian or Quaker , which are seen as a few steps away from atheism by many experts.

For the record:

The following Presidents had NO specific religious affiliation:

Thomas Jefferson
Franklin Pierce
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Barack Obama

Deist Beliefs

George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
John Tyler

Unitarianism

John Adams
John Quincy Adams
Millard Fillmore
William Howard Taft

Quaker

Herbert Hoover
Richard Nixon

That makes 18 Presidents who do not fit the mold of a typical religious person.

At the same time, some Presidents have been very devout, including:

James A. Garfield
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
Woodrow Wilson
Jimmy Carter

The other half of our Presidents were irregular church goers, and in many cases, they were not very committed to their faiths, but would identify with a faith that was considered Christian, with John F. Kennedy the only Catholic President..

The largest number of Presidents (12) were Episcopalians; 8 were Presbyterians; 4 Methodists; 4 Baptists; 3 Disciples of Christ; 2 Congregationalists; and 2 Dutch Reformed Church.

The US Senate: Grooming Ground For The Presidency And Vice Presidency!

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It has been said that the US Senate, the greatest deliberative legislative body in the world, is the grooming ground for the Presidency and Vice Presidency.

So therefore, it is worth a look at the facts regarding this statement.

So which Presidents had served in the US Senate, in chronological order: (a total of 16 Presidents)

James Monroe
John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Franklin Pierce
James Buchanan
Andrew Johnson
Benjamin Harrison
Warren G. Harding
Harry Truman
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon
Barack Obama

However, and this is stunning, only THREE of these Presidents were directly elected from the US Senate to the White House—Harding, Kennedy, and Obama.

And four of these Presidents who served in the Senate were not originally elected, but succeeded a President who had died in office—Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Truman, and Lyndon Johnson.

And notice 10 of these 16 Presidents who had served in the US Senate did so in the 19th century, and
except for Harding in the early 1920s, while four others were President between 1945 and 1974, with Obama the 16th and most recent example, but really a fluke as only the third elected directly from the Senate.

When we examine which Senators became Vice President of the United States, we discover the following in chronological order: (a total of 22 Vice Presidents)

Aaron Burr
Martin Van Buren
Richard Mentor Johnson
John Tyler
George M. Dallas
William R. King
John C. Breckinridge
Hannibal Hamlin
Andrew Johnson
Henry Wilson
Thomas A. Hendricks
Charles W. Fairbanks
Charles Curtis
Harry Truman
Alben Barkley
Richard Nixon
Lyndon B. Johnson
Hubert H. Humphrey
Walter Mondale
Dan Quayle
Al Gore
Joe Biden

Of this list of 22 Vice Presidents who had served in the Senate, six became President–Van Buren, Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Nixon.

So the Senate gave us about 40 percent of our Presidents, and about 50 percent of our Vice Presidents.

Conservatives Call Barack Obama First Racist President: Look In The Mirror And At History, Right Wingers!

Ronald 88 Comments

What a preposterous statement by many people in the Right Wing of the Republican Party and the conservative movement, to call Barack Obama our first “racist” President, because of his detailed, courageous, principled statement about race yesterday before White House reporters!

What Obama said about young black men growing up in America is absolutely true, and despicable, and Obama made it clear that he had, personally, experienced the same racism, and all that talk show hosts can do is throw the appellation “racist” at the President, rather than admit the history of the country, and the reality of the profiling of blacks in 2013, along with Hispanics and Latinos as well!

And the Right Wing chooses to ignore history, probably affected by fake historian David Barton, who promotes a sanitized view of American history, and has had a dramatic effect on textbook companies, pressuring them to write myths, rather than facts, about American history!

The facts are as follows:

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor all owned and exploited slaves, and some of them had children with their slaves, what could be called rape situations!

Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren forcibly removed Native Americans, the infamous “Trail of Tears”, while in office; and William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, and Zachary Taylor all gained their original fame by killing Native Americans, and bragging about it!

Andrew Johnson was probably the most outspoken racist President, and made it clear in working against the Freedmen’s Bureau continuation after the Civil War!

Ulysses S. Grant warred against Native Americans during his Presidency in a massive campaign to take away their lands!

Republican Presidents after Grant ignored violations of civil rights by Southerners, beginning with the fixed election of Rutherford B. Hayes on a promise to end military occupation of the South and let Democrats take care of their own states, and promoting racial segregation, Jim Crow laws!

Woodrow Wilson demonstrated strong racist tendencies and views during his administration, catering to the Southern Democratic heritage of his boyhood!

Many Presidents in their writings displayed racist thoughts, and some did so in speech at times, including Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan (who talked about welfare queens).

Only since Truman has it been fashionable to be FOR civil rights, but even then, Nixon and Ronald Reagan worked against civil rights any opportunity they were given!

So we have at least 18 Presidents who were racists, or displayed racist tendencies, toward African Americans and Native Americans in different forms!

So the concept that Barack Obama is a racist for speaking up on injustices toward people of his heritage is outrageous, ridiculous, and preposterous to the extreme!

Do you hear that?—Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter and the rest of their ilk?

Virginia Republicans: Scandal, And Right Wing Extremism On Display

Ronald 3 Comments

The state of Virginia, the home of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, W H Harrison, Tyler, and Wilson is in political crisis as the state faces not only political scandal of its Governor, Bob McDonnell, but also of its gubernatorial candidate to replace McDonnell, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who makes McDonnell look “progressive” by comparison, due to his extreme right wing social views! This is not saying that McDonnell is less right wing, but less confrontational in his public statements than Cuccinelli!

McDonnell, who has Presidential ambitions, has been shown to have accepted major gifts from a corporation which does business with the Virginia state government, including large amounts of cash given to his wife and children. There are already calls for his resignation, and it seems likely that he will face criminal charges and the possibility of time in prison.

But Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli also has accepted gifts from the same corporation, although he denies any wrongdoing, just as much as McDonnell so declares! The fact of a denial means nothing, however, as that is standard for politicians of both parties who are accused of wrongdoing, and almost always are shown to be engaged in just that, wrongdoing!

Cuccinelli has also been extremely controversial with his anti gay, anti women, anti immigrant, anti science crusade, stronger in rhetoric and action than even Governor McDonnell!

This gubernatorial nominee has abused his power as Attorney General, and called for the criminalization of private sex acts between adults, along with doing everything he can to insure that ObamaCare is never instituted in the state of Virginia. He has also worked to intimidate all immigrants of Hispanic-Latino ancestry in Virginia. He has also campaigned against the promotion of environmental standards on global warming, declared war on science, and attempted to intimidate various state university faculty who promote such standards. And he is a leader in taking away the rights of women to their own reproductive lives!

To top it off, Cuccinelli’s running mate for Lieutenant Governor, an African American minister named E. W. Jackson, has made statements that make him seem even more extreme than Cuccinelli himself, Jackson has said that the Great Society programs of the 1960s under Lyndon B. Johnson were worse than slavery had been for African Americans! He also has declared that homosexuals and Planned Parenthood are worse than the Ku Klux Klan ever was, and that Barack Obama has Muslim tendencies!

These crazy lunatic statements have made the team of Cuccinelli and Jackson extremely right wing, and with the corruption surrounding both McDonnell and Cuccinelli as well, it has made Virginia a center of controversy and embarrassment that can only be ended by the hoped for victory of Democrat Terry McAuliffe, former head of the Democratic National Committee, who would be in the tradition of former Democratic Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, who now grace the two Senate seats from Virginia!