Skip to main content

And the Winner of the Worst American President is: Donald Trump

 Quite a few of my friends have claimed that Donald Trump is the worst president in history. For all but the very beginning of Donald Trump's career as president, I've freely admitted that I considered him to be the worst president of my lifetime, but not the worst president of all time; that position was held by James Buchanan, who, I noted, actually broke the country. After today, however, I have to say I've changed my mind; Donald Trump is, without qualification, the worst president we've ever had.

You are free to disagree, of course, but you are wrong. James Buchanan allowed the country to fall into the Civil War because he believed the founding principles of the country did not allow anyone to stop it from happening. He was wrong but at least there was a principle behind it. Trump, it is now perfectly and unambiguously clear, would be delighted to have the country fall into a civil war, not for principle, but simply for ego. His lazy, half-assed, shambling coup attempt yesterday demonstrates that. Fortunately, it was based on the delusion that millions of people adore him enough to risk hard time to save his ego. He would destroy our country and democracy because he can't abide what he now is: a loser. He can not and does not care about the nation, nor its principles, nor any of its people, save the ones of the sort who will trash a capitol for him. James Buchanan, as awful as he was, was better than that. No president has called for open insurrection other than Trump.
Nothing Trump can do now will stop him from being what he is: A loser, a wretched president, and a historic low point for our country. He did not get there on his own, to be sure -- it was a decades-long project of the GOP, instigated by Newt Gingrich, to get us to this point -- but his own character and weaknesses define him. He will never escape his awfulness, even as the rest of us, thankfully, start to leave him behind two weeks from now. All he can do now is demonstrate over and over again the depths of his petulance, his pettiness, and his malice.
It would be lovely if we did not have to endure it for even two more weeks. It would be lovely if Trump resigned (he won't), if Vice President Pence invoked the 25th Amendment (he won't) or if Trump were impeached by the House (he might be!) and then convicted and removed by the Senate (he won't be, but he should be as that will make it illegal for him to ever hold office again). It would be lovely, but in point of fact, it won't happen. He will have to be endured for two more weeks. And we will see, in the time he has left, just how much worse he can get.
Meanwhile, for future reference, here are the 147 members of Congress who, in the midst of an insurrection, still voted to overthrow the election. This is what makes me think we are on the glide path to dictatorship.
United States Senate
Josh Hawley (R-MO)
Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
John Kennedy (R-LA)
Roger Marshall (R-KS)
Rick Scott (R-FL)
Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)
United States House of Representatives
Robert Aderholt (R-AL)
Rick Allen (R-GA)
Jodey Arrington (R-TX)
Brian Babin (R-TX)
Jim Baird (R-IN)
Jim Banks (R-IN)
Cliff Bentz (R-OR)
Jack Bergman (R-MI)
Stephanie Bice (R-OK)
Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
Dan Bishop (R-NC)
Lauren Boebert (R-CO)
Mike Bost (R-IL)
Mo Brooks (R-AL)
Ted Budd (R-NC)
Tim Burchett (R-TN)
Michael Burgess (R-TX)
Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Kat Cammack (R-FL)
Jerry Carl (R-AL)
Earl Carter (R-GA)
John Carter (R-TX)
Madison Cawthorn (R-NC)
Steve Chabot (R-OH)
Ben Cline (R-VA)
Michael Cloud (R-TX)
Andrew Clyde (R-GA)
Tom Cole (R-OK)
Rick Crawford (R-AR)
Warren Davidson (R-OH)
Scott DesJarlais (R-TN)
Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
Byron Donalds (R-FL)
Jeff Duncan (R-SC)
Neal Dunn (R-FL)
Ron Estes (R-KS)
Pat Fallon (R-TX)
Michelle Fischbach (R-MN)
Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI)
Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)
Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
C. Scott Franklin (R-FL)
Russ Fulcher (R-ID)
Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
Mike Garcia (R-CA)
Bob Gibbs (R-OH)
Carlos Gimenez (R-FL)
Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Bob Good (R-VA)
Lance Gooden (R-TX)
Paul Gosar (R-AZ)
Sam Graves (R-MO)
Mark Green (R-TN)
Marjorie Greene (R-GA)
Morgan Griffith (R-VA)
Michael Guest (R-MS)
Jim Hagedorn (R-MN)
Andy Harris (R-MD)
Diana Harshbarger (R-TN)
Vicky Hartzler (R-MO)
Kevin Hern (R-OK)
Yvette Herrell (R-NM)
Jody Hice (R-GA)
Clay Higgins (R-LA)
Richard Hudson (R-NC)
Darrell Issa (R-CA)
Ronny Jackson (R-TX)
Chris Jacobs (R-NY)
Mike Johnson (R-LA)
Bill Johnson (R-OH)
Jim Jordan (R-OH)
John Joyce (R-PA)
Fred Keller (R-PA)
Trent Kelly (R-MS)
Mike Kelly (R-PA)
David Kustoff (R-TN)
Doug LaMalfa (R-CA)
Doug Lamborn (R-CO)
Jake LaTurner (R-KS)
Debbie Lesko (R-AZ)
Billy Long (R-MO)
Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)
Frank Lucas (R-OK)
Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY)
Tracey Mann (R-KS)
Brian Mast (R-FL)
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
Lisa McClain (R-MI)
Daniel Meuser (R-PA)
Mary Miller (R-IL)
Carol Miller (R-WV)
Alexander Mooney (R-WV)
Barry Moore (R-AL)
Markwayne Mullin (R-OK)
Greg Murphy (R-NC)
Troy Nehls (R-TX)
Ralph Norman (R-SC)
Devin Nunes (R-CA)
Jay Obernolte (R-CA)
Burgess Owens (R-UT)
Steven Palazzo (R-MS)
Gary Palmer (R-AL)
Greg Pence (R-IN)
Scott Perry (R-PA)
August Pfluger (R-TX)
Bill Posey (R-FL)
Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA)
Tom Rice (R-SC)
Mike Rogers (R-AL)
Harold Rogers (R-KY)
John Rose (R-TN)
Matthew Rosendale, Sr. (R-MT)
David Rouzer (R-NC)
John Rutherford (R-FL)
Steve Scalise (R-LA)
David Schweikert (R-AZ)
Pete Sessions (R-TX)
Jason Smith (R-MO)
Adrian Smith (R-NE)
Lloyd Smucker (R-PA)
Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
W. Gregory Steube (R-FL)
Chris Stewart (R-UT)
Glenn Thompson (R-PA)
Thomas Tiffany (R-WI)
William Timmons IV (R-SC)
Jefferson Van Drew (R-NJ)
Beth Van Duyne (R-TX)
Tim Walberg (R-MI)
Jackie Walorski (R-IN)
Randy Weber, Sr. (R-TX)
Daniel Webster (R-FL)
Roger Williams (R-TX)
Joe Wilson (R-SC)
Robert Wittman (R-VA)
Ron Wright (R-TX)
Lee Zeldin (R-NY)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tis for Today in 1925

Today is the birthday of the author and illustrator Edward Gorey, born in Chicago, 1925. His stepmother was the woman playing the guitar during the Marseillaise scene in Casablanca. The New York Times credits bookstore owner Andreas Brown and his store, the Gotham Book Mart, with launching Gorey's career: "it became the central clearing house for Mr. Gorey, presenting exhibitions of his work in the store's gallery and eventually turning him into an international celebrity." Gorey's illustrated (and sometimes wordless) books, with their vaguely ominous air and ostensibly Victorian and Edwardian settings, have long had a cult following.[7] He made a notable impact on the world of theater with his designs for the 1977 Broadway revival of Dracula, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design. In 1980, Gorey became particularly well known for his animated introduction to the PBS series Mystery! ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bend and Stretch. Reach for the Stars. There Goes Jupiter, There Goes Mars...

On this day in 1976, during an interview on BBC Radio 2, British astronomer Patrick Moore announced that a very rare planetary event was about to take place—that Jupiter and Pluto would soon align in relation to Earth, and their combined gravitational pull would momentarily override Earth's own gravity and make people weigh less. He called it the Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect, and said that if people jumped into the air at exactly 9:47 a.m., they would experience a floating sensation. Moore signaled, "Jump now!" over the airwaves, and within minutes the BBC switchboard was flooded with calls from people who claimed it had worked. In 1957, the BBC TV show "Panorama" ran a segment about the Swiss spaghetti harvest enjoying a "bumper year" thanks to mild weather and the elimination of the spaghetti weevil. Many credulous Britons were taken in. In 1998, Mark Boslough fabricated a press release claiming that the Alabama legislature had legally...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Simpsooooooons.

On this day in 1987, the longest running prime time sitcom in TV history debuted. The Simpsons began as a video short on The Tracy Ullman Show. Two years later it was spun off on its own and has now aired more than 650 episodes. It has received numerous awards. The Simpson family has their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Matt Groening has said that his goal in creating The Simpsons was to offer audiences an alternative to the "mainstream trash" they were watching. And while the show often tackles heavy-hitting topics like religion, climate change, poverty, gun control, and nuclear power, its silly jokes and occasionally coarse humor have put some people off. In the early '90s, President George H.W. Bush encouraged Americans to be more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons. First Lady Barbara Bush called The Simpsons "the dumbest thing she had ever seen." But to be like Simpsons may not be so bad after all. The characters embrace and reflect...
Post a Comment
Read more