Thursday, July 15, 2004
Periodic Presidents 11: Nero Presidents
Nero was one of the most ruthless of Rome's dictators. By calling Column 11 the Nero Presidents, I am not referring to this property of Nero. Instead, I refer to his sitting idly by while a major crisis hit his empire. "Nero fiddled while Rome burned." The common characteristic of the Nero Presidents is that they would not deal with a crisis that was either imminent or had occurred. They just simply let things go the best they can, while the country fell apart. They fiddled while America burned. Our three Nero Presidents are James Buchanan, Herbert Hoover, and George W. Bush, our present President. When a Nero President is in the White House, a major crisis is coming within 5 years; in fact, the crisis could be imminent or it could have started already; such a crisis hit our nation during the administrations of Buchanan and Hoover.
James Buchanan was one candidate that the Democrats could agree upon in 1856. Their uniting behind Buchanan prevented Fremont from being elected, an event which could have led directly to civil war. The Dred Scott decision occurred during Buchanan's term. This polarized the two sides, causing Lincoln to say that a nation divided against itself cannot stand. Buchanan did nothing about it, and the split got so bad in 1860 that the Democrats split, causing Lincoln to win and southern states to secede. Seven of them had seceded during Buchanan's term, but he did nothing and at least held some semblance of peace to the end of his term, even though America was breaking in half.
Herbert Hoover was elected in one of the biggest prosperities in our nation's history. However, the financial system could not stand. The stock market crashed in 1929, leading to the Great Depression. Hoover's way of dealing with this was to say that prosperity was around the corner; that a few more months of correction would result in the nation coming back again. But it didn't. Banks failed, people lost their fortunes, and it became clear to people that Hoover did not understand the crisis that the nation had gotten into. He followed the old rules of the past, and a fresh approach was needed, so he lost the 1932 election to Franklin Roosevelt.
George W. Bush is our present President, so we don't have his complete term to study. But nevertheless Bush has shown some Nero qualities. For example, when the towers fell on 9/11, Bush continued to read "The Pet Goat" to children, a scene brought vividly to the movie screen by Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11. It seems that he may be misunderstanding the crisis of the future, which will probably be the running out of cheap oil. Instead of cooperating with other nations on how to deal with the possible oil crisis, he has instead tried to control the remaining oil with his actions. It remains to see what happens in the rest of his term(s).
Now this suggests that a crisis may be coming up, and the details of this crisis are expressed well in sites that deal with oil depletion and in the Fourth Turning site. And that in turn leads to our final sequence of presidents, which I discuss next: The Crisis Presidents.
James Buchanan was one candidate that the Democrats could agree upon in 1856. Their uniting behind Buchanan prevented Fremont from being elected, an event which could have led directly to civil war. The Dred Scott decision occurred during Buchanan's term. This polarized the two sides, causing Lincoln to say that a nation divided against itself cannot stand. Buchanan did nothing about it, and the split got so bad in 1860 that the Democrats split, causing Lincoln to win and southern states to secede. Seven of them had seceded during Buchanan's term, but he did nothing and at least held some semblance of peace to the end of his term, even though America was breaking in half.
Herbert Hoover was elected in one of the biggest prosperities in our nation's history. However, the financial system could not stand. The stock market crashed in 1929, leading to the Great Depression. Hoover's way of dealing with this was to say that prosperity was around the corner; that a few more months of correction would result in the nation coming back again. But it didn't. Banks failed, people lost their fortunes, and it became clear to people that Hoover did not understand the crisis that the nation had gotten into. He followed the old rules of the past, and a fresh approach was needed, so he lost the 1932 election to Franklin Roosevelt.
George W. Bush is our present President, so we don't have his complete term to study. But nevertheless Bush has shown some Nero qualities. For example, when the towers fell on 9/11, Bush continued to read "The Pet Goat" to children, a scene brought vividly to the movie screen by Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11. It seems that he may be misunderstanding the crisis of the future, which will probably be the running out of cheap oil. Instead of cooperating with other nations on how to deal with the possible oil crisis, he has instead tried to control the remaining oil with his actions. It remains to see what happens in the rest of his term(s).
Now this suggests that a crisis may be coming up, and the details of this crisis are expressed well in sites that deal with oil depletion and in the Fourth Turning site. And that in turn leads to our final sequence of presidents, which I discuss next: The Crisis Presidents.
