Republican President? No Thanks.

When I think about it, the Republican presidents in my lifetime have pretty much been swine. 

The last Republican POTUS who I believe deserves an ounce of respect, was president when I was born: Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike was a WWII leader on the battlefield, he built the U.S. highway system, he helped establish NATO, and he left us with a preiesnt speech about the military industrial complex that you should all go watch right now. 

Next, we had a Democrat in JFK. As with all presidents, he was far from perfect. However,  he was a beloved leader who started the space program, stood up to Russia in the Cuban Missel Crisis, and started the Peace Corps. He gave people hope. Yes, he also helped escalate Vietnam and lied about it, as did his successors. But to me, he goes in the plus column. 

Next up is Lyndon B. Johnson. Despite his many shortcomings and rough exterior, Johnson did push forth the Civil Rights laws that helped eliminate Jim Crow in the South. He also oversaw a decent economy but faced backlash and violent protests because of Vietnam. He was a political animal,  and Kennedy only selected him as Veep to garner the Southern vote. 

Nixon came next, and the man was pretty much scum. He recruited disenfranchised racists in '68 in the Southern Strategy to get elected, demonized black folks to gin up great amongst white voters, escalated Vietnam even further, and was finally removed from office in the Watergate scandal. Oh, and his economy pretty much sucked. 

He does have two things on the plus side: 1) he finally did end the draft and the Vietnam War, albeit under duress, and 2) he started the environmental protection agency. 

But respect? Nope, he gets zero. 

Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976, the first election in which I cast a vote. Carter was hamstring by the rough economy Nixon handed him, and interest rates soared into the high teens. But the time I was about to graduate college, the job market was awful, and then the Republicans used the hostage situation in Iran and the canceled Olympic games to finish Carter in '80.

But despite those negatives, Carter was (and is) a good man who served his country admirably  and lived the life of a true public servant even to this day. He gets respect for his humanity. 

Reagan, however,  was a disaster. Like Nixon, he has many friends in organized crime. He aligned himself with the religious right and allowed them to get their filthy hooks deep into our government. He used racism and fear of the dark people to get himself elected, though the economy under Carter was clearly the main culprit.

His policies drastically increased governed debt, buried the middle class for decades, and actually demonized government itself, leading us into this trickle-down, supply-side economy that only works for the rich.

His one plus was that he helped end the cold war and saw the removal of the Berlin wall, which united Germany. But to be clear, he was unfit for the office he held and was not a person who wrote policy. He was simply an actor who they put in front of a camera and told what to say. 

Zero respect. 

Riding on Reagan's evil coat tails, George H.W. Bush slithers in next. His brief tenure was marred by the disastrous Desert Storm action, more rising debt, a giant arms scandal, and not much of anything that was good in the b late 80s and early 90s, as the results of Reagan's foul policies continued. 

In 1992, a smooth talking, unknown Southern Democratic governor somehow wrestled the reigns of power after 12 years of Republucan rule. Bill Clinton inherited a rotten economy and sky rocketing debt. 

All he did in his eight years was balance the budget and build an economy that boomed into the 2000s. These were really good times for American workers, as wages rose,  jobs were created, and we managed to avoid any foreign conflicts. 

Clinton's personal life was another story, and I won't be defending that here. But for his job performance alone, he has my respect absolutely.