Always Rising, From the Bottom Up

THESE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA did not begin its existence successfully. Violently conceived with the help of a four thousand mile barricade of water and the French navy, its first government, assembled on the principle that the central government must not be strong, and that power must be vested in the several (13) states, the Articles of Confederation were feckless, impotent, wholly ineffective, inadequate to the tasks it faced. It had no president, no Chief Executive. Its power consisted of a legislative body comprised of competing, not unified inserests. Its salvation was that its promulgators realized this soon enough, in only six years, to take corrective action. Hence, ths constitution of Madison and Morris and others, which we use today, anachronistically. It admitted that it needed a head of state, if a weak one. The president's primary duties and powers were the formulation of foreign policy, and the appointment of federal judges. There was never any doubt who the first president would be. Everybody wanted George Washington, if not to be king, to at least be the head of state. Nobody since has been unanimously elected, nobody ever will be again. They wrangled over the title, and everything else. John Adams would have had the office called "His Most Esteemed and Majestic Executive of the National Entity", or something equally awkward, arrogant, and pompous, like Adams himself. The word "president" was diminuitive, implying the chairperson of a Saturday night card club. "President" was appropriately weak and harmless. Washington ended up hating the job, as have most since. He wanted to leave after four years, they made him stay for eight, and he refused more. Two terms thus became a matter of tradition, until Roosevelt, who inspired a constitutional amendment. The idea of refraining from seeking political office lasted through Adams, was smashed to smitherenes by Thomas Jefferson, who sought the office desperately while pretending not to, and who should have been more careful what he wished for. He, like Washington, ened up miserable. The nineteenth century witnessed a string of weak, inssignificant presidents, with a brief flash in the pan powerhouse Andrew Jackson, until Abraham Lincoln bacame America's first true tyrant, at least partly through sheer necessity. Twentieth century presidents became far more powerful, and much more interesting. Its nearly impossible to access when America's grand tradition of corrupt, incompetant presidents began; we can with confidence say that it began early and often. Credit Mobilier, Teapot Dome, Watergate, with a comatose pretend president or two thrown in for good measure. The second president, Adams, forced a law making it illegal to criticize the president, an obvious no no in the land of liberty.(It didn't last). As far as ranking the presidents goes, its lonely at the top, quite crowded at the bottom. Your vote's as good as anyone's. I go Lincoln, FDR up top, Buchanon and Trump way down below. We havent'a always had the best choices to chose from; anyone wise enough to be president is wise enough not to want to be. So here we be; our choice between a man in decline and a criminally insane convicted criminal. It could be worse, although its hard to see how, arguably it has been, although its hard to say when. The declining man, or the career criminal. Your choice. As we like to say, good luck with that.