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A few disclaimers up front:
1. I truly hope that my assessment and evaluation of what is likely to happen is wrong. I hope the things I foresee never occur. I also hope that there really is an Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy!
2. This will probably be a long blog, (I will try to break it up into digestible pieces), and for those who have their mind made up on either side, both boring and aggravating. For those folks, I suggest you pass this blog by.
3. My assessment and opinions are based upon history and the consequences of actions taken thus far. My opinions are mine, (c. 2015 tortminder), but you are welcome to accept them as you own, should you choose to do so. One way or the other, they are worth exactly what you paid for them.
The following question was asked on the 1branson.com "Heroes" thread:
Originally Posted by timothyb38652
QUOTE: "So if you don't think compromise is the answer then what is? Let the dems nominate the most far left leaning candidate they can and then let the republicans nominate the most far right leaning they can come up with and one of them win and nothing get done the other side refuses to cooperate with the winning side and then vast majorities of the electorate remain dissatisfied? "
-"There's got to be a way to find common ground that everyone can agree on so the country can move forward and not continue to divide and erupt into chaos which is inevitably going to happen someday if people don't star working together."
-"Sitting out elections because you don't like either candidate doesn't work. Voting for third party or independent candidates doesn't work because you'll never get enough people behind one independent candidate to make a difference."
-"I've often thought that doing away with the whole idea of running mates would be a good start. Let whoever wins take the presidency and whoever comes in second take the vice presidency. Force them to work together and see what happens." /end quote
This is actually four questions. I will attempt to answer the first one in this post.
The answer, in my opinion, is that there is no answer as you have framed the question.
Like it or not, under the current system things will continue as they are. The politicians will continue to polarize their bases and, thereby, keep the people disunited and consequently, keep themselves in power.
The fact is that what currently passes as the United States of America would be unrecognizable to the Founding Fathers. Whatever this country is, it is not the noble experiment begun by the patriots who gave birth to what was once a "shining city on the hill".
There are numerous reasons for this, but the cold, hard fact is that as early as 1784, then President George Washington lead a force of troops from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to crush a tax rebellion by farmer/distillers who were protesting an excise tax on their distilled spirits since they had no opportunity to have input on the tax and felt that it was, once again, "Taxation without representation", a major factor in the recent war of independence. (Research Whiskey Rebellion or Whiskey Insurrection). It was the "Father of our country", George Washington, who was the first Chief Executive who used the power of the Federal Government to overcome the sovereignty of the people.
The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new national government had the will and the ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws. The whiskey excise remained difficult to collect, however.
These events contributed to the formation of political parties in the United States, a process already underway. The whiskey tax was repealed after Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party, which opposed Hamilton's Federalist Party, came to power in 1801.
To quickly highlight a few of the next Presidents, we have John Adams, who passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which prevented people from criticizing the federal government;
-Thomas Jefferson, who made the Louisiana purchase without authorization from Congress or the people;
-James Madison, who lost the war of 1812 to the British & got the White House burned;
-James Monroe, who is famous for "The Monroe Doctrine" that started the US colonial expansion era. Anti-Semitic to the point of dismissing his Consul to Tunis when he discovered that the man was Jewish;
-John Quincy Adams, became President when the electoral college failed to give a majority of votes to either candidate, (Andrew Jackson actually had more electoral votes, but not enough to attain the Presidency). In a deal with Henry Clay, Clay switched his vote to Adams and was rewarded by becoming Adams' Secretary of State. He also had a pet alligator which he kept in the White House bathtub;
-Andrew Jackson, a notorious hothead, he was involved in over 100 duels in his lifetime. He was responsible for the Indian Removal Act which resulted in the famed "Trail of Tears" and the death of thousands of women, children and elderly. He also believed that the earth was flat;
-Martin Van Buren, his Presidency was notable only for the Financial Panic of 1837. He was a one-term President;
-William Henry Harrison, like many of the politicians of today, Harrison did a lot of pretending to be a common man and a lot of actually being from an extremely wealthy slave-owning family. He started things off with a bang, giving the longest ever inaugural address for two hours. Then he got pneumonia and perished. That was his presidency, (he is a distant relative of Rick Harrison of the History Channel "Pawn Stars";
-John Tyler, His presidency started in controversy, as the existing Constitution didn’t really have instructions for what to do when a president dies in office. There was The Princeton Disaster, when Tyler and his cabinet members were on a ceremonial cruise and a huge naval gun aboard the ship fired a celebratory shot—only it malfunctioned and exploded on the boat, killing off much of Tyler’s cabinet. He basically got nothing done in office and went down as one of history’s worst presidents;
-James K. Polk, This man is an anomaly in American politics. Emerging in 1845 as an unlikely dark horse election-winner, Polk was a rare promise-keeping and efficient president. He began by announcing that he would only seek one term in office, and followed by laying out a clear, ambitious agenda—re-establish an independent Treasury, reduce tariffs, and acquire a bunch of Western land. Then he spent his one term taking no vacations, accomplishing his full agenda, and didn’t run again. Weird, right?;
-Zachary Taylor, He died suddenly after eating some raw fruit, about a year into his presidency. Historians have speculated that he may have been poisoned, but there’s no conclusive evidence either way;
-Millard Filmore, proposed The Compromise of 1850, which momentarily quieted tensions, successfully kicking the can down the road. One interesting achievement of his presidency was commissioning the Perry Expedition to try to open up isolationist Japan, which triggered Japan’s new path toward becoming a powerful, modern nation;
-Franklin Pierce, Franklin Pierce was good at some things, like law and fishing. He was also bad at some things, like being the president;
-James Buchanan, James Buchanan is the next in line and the lowest-ranked of all the presidents so far, at 42nd. Buchanan’s four years were insanely tense and rocky, with Civil War furor bubbling over and an economic crisis—the Panic of 1857—not helping the situation.
-And that brings us to the 16th. President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who deserves an entire post all his own.
Thus endeth today's' lesson in American history and some of why we are going to hell in a handbasket.
...to be continued
I want to be able to leave a record of my thoughts and philosophy for my now 11 year old so when he is older he might understand who we were and where we went off the tracks.
-We start with Andrew Johnson, who was Lincolns' Vice-President. Until Bill Clinton came along, his biggest claim to fame was that he was the only American President to be impeached. Johnson was a "son-of-the-south" who believed that session was wrong, but as President attempted to mitigate the repressive and retaliatory measures against the newly defeated Confederate states. This earned him the enmity of the Congress and impeachment, (which failed by one vote). His outstanding achievement was the acquisition of Alaska from Russia...
-Ulysses S. Grant...His name was actually Hiram Ulysses Grant, but the guy that nominated him for West Point messed up the paperwork and it was too difficult to correct, so he went through the rest of his life with a name that was not his. He was pretty much a failure in his life en devours with the exception of being a General in the Union Army during the war for Southern Independence... but even as a general, he was squeamish at the sight of blood and even rare meat upset him. His administration was among the most corrupt up to that time and his biggest achievement was to eventually be on the $50 bill. He died of throat cancer caused by his habit of smoking numerous cigars daily...
-Rutherford B. Hayes... After the rampant corruption during the Grant administration, you would thing you could run a chamber pot and win the election... you would think that, but you would be wrong. In a scenario that would be closely paralleled by the Bush-Gore election, the contest was too close to call, and Hayes was given the Presidency in what was later referred to as the Compromise of 1877. That was about the most interesting thing about Hayes' Presidency. He had phone #1 when a phone was installed in the White House by Alexander Graham Bell. It wasn't such a big deal at the time though, since there were no other phones installed and therefore no one to call and talk to.
-James A. Garfield...Garfield's' presidency only lasted 80 days, he was one of 4 Presidents to be assassinated which you would think would have made him more memorable. The only thing more forgettable than Garfield's' presidency is the name of his assassin, Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker.
-Chester A Arthur... probably our best-dressed president, he was reported to have over 80 pairs of trousers in his closet. He was a widower when elected and, when asked about his social life, his response was; "I may be President of the United States, but my personal life is my own damn business!" The biggest achievement of his administration was the passage of the Pendleton Civil-Service act which replaced the spoils system of government appointments, (supposedly... research "Plum Book"). Upon becoming president, Arthur sold off 24 wagon loads of what he considered outdated White House furniture and other junk, and what today would have been considered priceless treasures going all the way back to the administrations of the forefathers, for $8,000.
-Grover Cleveland...Had a rather undistinguished two terms which were both before and after Benjamin Harrison. The Statue of Liberty was erected during his tenure and his face is to be found on the $1,000 bill.
-Benjamin Harrison... spent his single term trying to undo what had been done by Grover Cleveland. Probably the kindest thing to say about his terms in office is that he lived up to the standard of the presidency of his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, although he did manage to do some damage to the Constitution by signing the Sherman Anti-trust Act. His distant relative is Rick Harrison of the History Channel program "Pawn Stars".
- Grover Cleveland... again.
-William McKinley... McKinley joins Garfield as the second president to be assassinated and have no one today really know about it or care. The major thing McKinley’s presidency is known for is the Spanish-American War.
Anyway, McKinley finished his term a pretty popular president and ran for reelection in 1900, this time with a new running mate—Theodore Roosevelt—since his old running mate had died during the term, and they won in a landslide.
A few months later, Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist who felt there was great injustice in the country and had been inspired by the recent news of an Italian anarchist taking matters into his own hands and killing the King of Italy, showed up at a stop along McKinley’s tour of the country, got in line to meet the president, and when he got to the front of the line, shot McKinley twice in the chest with a gun hidden in his handkerchief.
McKinley didn’t die immediately. In fact, for a few days, McKinley seemed to be improving, and his doctors were optimistic. But getting shot in the 1800s is a lot more unfortunate than getting shot today, and the doctors completely missed the fact that gangrene was growing in his stomach and slowly poisoning his blood. McKinley began to realize he had no hope and accepted his fate (again, odd to be aware that you’re an assassinated president) and said bye to everyone and his sobbing wife. Eight days after the shooting, McKinley died a popular president, and the nation went into severe mourning. Czolgosz went to the electric chair a few weeks later.
And Theodore Roosevelt became president... the next installment will outline the first of the Constitution-trashing Roosevelts.
...to be continued