Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Another boring post, or maybe not

From April 1945 until Joe Biden's first/only (pick one) term as president ends a few months from now, 80 years will have elapsed. During this period the U.S. has had 14 presidents, seven of them Democrats and seven of them Republicans. Here they are:

Democrats:
1. Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)
2. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
3. Lyndon Johnson (1963-1969)
4. Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
5. Bill Clinton (1993-2001)
6. Barack Obama (2009-2017)
7. Joe Biden (2021-2025)

Republicans:
1. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
2. Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
3. Gerald Ford (1974-1977)
4. Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
5. George H.W. Bush (1989-1993)
6. George W. Bush (2001-2009)
7. Donald Trump (2017-2021)

A closer look reveals that Democrats have held the presidency for 40 of those years and Republicans have held the presidency for the remaining 40 of those years. So it's been half and half, back and forth, six (well, seven) of one and a half-dozen (well, seven) of the other.

What does it prove? Probably nothing, but possibly that American voters are not paying attention, or possibly (and this is my view) that American voters are more than willing to give the other guys a chance but are also more than willing to throw the bums out if accomplisments do not live up to promises.

Let's change the subject.

All my life, including through the recent covid-19 pandemic, I believed that my wearing a mask prevented me from getting what another person might have. It turns out that I was wrong. My wearing a mask does not prevent me from getting what another person might have, it prevents the other person from getting what I might have. In order for me not to get what another person might have requires that the other person wear a mask.

No, really. My mask protects you, not me, and your mask protects me, not you. It boggles the mind. The logical conclusion is that we have to depend on one another in order to survive. What a concept!

In other news, former Secretary of State, former Senator from New York, former First Lady, and former Democrat candidate for president in 2016, Hillary Clinton said on a podcast a few days ago that what Donald Trump really wants is to kill his opponents and to throw the opposition into prison. I do believe that Mrs. Clinton is projecting onto Mr. Trump the things she actually wants to do, a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black,

I end this post with an old saying that is completely unrelated to anything else in the post because when you're 83 continuity is just a word in the dictionary:

"I complained because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."

8 comments:

  1. We vote to remove a tyrant, in order to promote another.

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    Replies
    1. Hopefully not, but your point is well taken. Thank you, Janice.

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  2. For the last eighty years Republicans and Democrats are tied for being in the White House. I believe that it shows that Americans vote according to their feelings about who will do the best job for the country.

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    Replies
    1. Many Americans vote just like their Mama and Daddy did, and many vote just the opposite of what their Mama and Daddy did. That is, unthinkingly. Millions upon millions of people in the political center don't pay that much attention to politics until about two weeks before the general election. Here in our county, for example, only 15% of all registered voters bothered to vote in the primary and that is when the parties select their candidates from a larger field. Unfortunately it s the activists on the Right and on the Left who make all the noise. Thank you for commenting, Emma.

      Delete
  3. I can name all the British PMs in sequence. Most are forgettable.

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    Replies
    1. I couldn't begin to name your Prime Ministers but I can still name most of the monarchs and their reigns. Thank you, Tasker.

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  4. Interesting about the 40 and 40 split. I am praying and contributing money to get the best President in the 2024 election (not saying who I favor, just want the best for our country).

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    Replies
    1. Why do they need so much money anyway? Campaigns are way too expensive and the media companies are raking in the profits. Thank you, Terra.

      Delete

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