[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]
The Book of the Week is “Whistlestop, My Favorite Stories From Presidential Campaign History” by John Dickerson, published in 2016. Some of the stories in this slightly sloppily-edited volume got tabloidy, but all of them just reminded the reader that there is nothing new under the sun, or showed how times have changed, in connection with presidential politics in America.
In 1948, Democratic incumbent Truman speechified about the usual politico-economic nature of the Republicans:
- trickle-down economics;
- heartless;
- greedy toward American consumers;
- betraying American farmers.
Currently, many people would agree with the above description of the Republicans. Truman urged voters to elect a Congress which would help ordinary Americans rather than act in “the interests of the men who have all the money.” Truman wasn’t a hypocrite in this, as he inherited neither a business nor a boatload of wealth from his daddy.
In 1992, presidential hopeful Bob Kerrey “suggested using the military to fight the War on Drugs, an idea that could get a candidate arrested in Democratic politics…” Not anymore. Just ask Nicolas Maduros of Venezuela– a rerun of George H.W. Bush’s episode with Manuel Noriega of Panama.
In 2004, presidential candidate Howard Dean went on the TV show Meet the Press with Tim Russert. Critics said his delivery was awful, as he made rambling generalizations and got impatient and impertinent with the questioner.
Apparently, by 2016, some viewers tolerated an inarticulate presidential candidate (Trump) who attacked the media outright! Those viewers wish they could accumulate (over the course of decades) the kind of power that allowed Trump to get away with that.
One last interesting factoid: In the last sixty years, three vice presidents ran for president and never became president, all three of whom were Democrats, and two of whom were from Minnesota: Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Al Gore.
Read the book to learn about various other episodes involving presidential hopefuls who won or lost, from all different centuries.
ENDNOTE:
According to media headlines, Trump PLANNED in February 2025 to (in no particular order):
- use military sites across the country to detain undocumented immigrants
- take over the Postal Service
- inspect Fort Knox gold
- impose tariffs on foreign automakers, chips and pharmaceuticals
- create a sovereign wealth fund
- lower consumer energy costs
- name himself chair of the Kennedy Center and fire board members
- create a tourist mecca in a strip of land in Gaza
- reduce access to abortion
- lower the corporate tax rate to 15%
- eliminate income taxing and payroll taxing of tips
- eliminate taxing of Social Security benefits
- trample on the rights of LGBTQ+ people
- eliminate the Department of Education
- replace the Affordable Care Act
- give a tax credit for family caregivers of older and disabled adults between $5,000 and $6,000 per year
- support more oil and gas drilling
- take over Greenland and
- take over Canada.
It has been a year. The above can be used as a checklist of what the president has accomplished, made progress on, or NOT.
The simplest, most direct way for ethical leaders to turn the country around, would be to TAX THE RICH.