Sunday, July 11, 2004
Periodic Presidents 6: Supportive Presidents
The next category in my Periodic Presidents is the Supportive Presidents, in column (or row) 6. It's been a while since I have blogged about the Periodic Presidents, and part of this is that it is hard to write about Second Turning presidents - they are hard to classify. The Presidents nearest to the Fourth Turnings are the easiest to classify.
Nevertheless, the supportive presidents, namely Martin Van Buren, William McKinley, and Jimmy Carter, are a letdown from the Presidents that preceded them; Jackson, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, and Nixon are hard acts to follow. Nevertheless, they supported and carried on the innovations of the preceding Expansive presidents, and kept our nation's ball rolling during a tumultuous time, namely a Second Turning. Further, there is an irregularity, maybe caused by the only Presidential resignation in our history. Normally, Supportive presidents follow Expansive ones, then are followed by Regressive ones, but the reverse occurred in the late 20th Century: Carter followed Ford. Some more details on the Supportive Presidents follow:
Martin Van Buren was one of the few Vice Presidents in our country to become President (George H. W. Bush was another one). He was different from Jackson all right. Davy Crockett once said, "Van Buren is as opposite to General Jackson as dung is from diamond." As is the case with Supportive presidents in general, Van Buren faced a poor economy caused by the Panic of 1837, and he could not do much about it except to allow the Treasury to operate outside private banks. He did settle a couple of nasty disputes with Canada, and he managed to hold the peace between pro and anti-slavery groups.
William McKinley was a product of the Ohio political machine run by Mark Hanna. He won reelection in a race similar to 2004's race, and somewhat reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz. He did not campaign all over the place; he stayed in Ohio and issued edicts, sort of like what the Wizard did. He did not have too bad an economy to deal with, but he did get into a couple of foreign skirmishes, most notably the Spanish-American war, the war in which Spain lost the last remnants of its New World empire. He annexed Hawaii, although that was painful for some Hawaiians. He made America known in the world, causing him to get reelected; unfortunately, a malcontent of Polish origin shot him in Buffalo in 1901 and he died shortly afterward.
Jimmy Carter continued some of the policies of the Nixon administration, most notably, his opening up to the world. This president came close to doing the impossible during his administration, namely getting an Arab country (Egypt) and Israel to agree to a peace treaty that has been maintained to the present day. However, he could not do much about a bad economy caused by oil shocks and his attempt to do something about the Iranian hostage crisis led to the failed rescue attempt. This and an economy of high unemployment and high inflation caused him to lose reelection in 1980, ushering in the Third Turning with an Idealistic president, Ronald Reagan. Jimmy Carter got his real fame after the Presidency by his continuing social work in many countries across the globe, helping him earn the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002; he is the only President ever to receive that prestigious prize.
Next row: Row 7, the Regressive Presidents, who seemed to fill in a gap between the Second and the Third Turning.
Nevertheless, the supportive presidents, namely Martin Van Buren, William McKinley, and Jimmy Carter, are a letdown from the Presidents that preceded them; Jackson, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, and Nixon are hard acts to follow. Nevertheless, they supported and carried on the innovations of the preceding Expansive presidents, and kept our nation's ball rolling during a tumultuous time, namely a Second Turning. Further, there is an irregularity, maybe caused by the only Presidential resignation in our history. Normally, Supportive presidents follow Expansive ones, then are followed by Regressive ones, but the reverse occurred in the late 20th Century: Carter followed Ford. Some more details on the Supportive Presidents follow:
Martin Van Buren was one of the few Vice Presidents in our country to become President (George H. W. Bush was another one). He was different from Jackson all right. Davy Crockett once said, "Van Buren is as opposite to General Jackson as dung is from diamond." As is the case with Supportive presidents in general, Van Buren faced a poor economy caused by the Panic of 1837, and he could not do much about it except to allow the Treasury to operate outside private banks. He did settle a couple of nasty disputes with Canada, and he managed to hold the peace between pro and anti-slavery groups.
William McKinley was a product of the Ohio political machine run by Mark Hanna. He won reelection in a race similar to 2004's race, and somewhat reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz. He did not campaign all over the place; he stayed in Ohio and issued edicts, sort of like what the Wizard did. He did not have too bad an economy to deal with, but he did get into a couple of foreign skirmishes, most notably the Spanish-American war, the war in which Spain lost the last remnants of its New World empire. He annexed Hawaii, although that was painful for some Hawaiians. He made America known in the world, causing him to get reelected; unfortunately, a malcontent of Polish origin shot him in Buffalo in 1901 and he died shortly afterward.
Jimmy Carter continued some of the policies of the Nixon administration, most notably, his opening up to the world. This president came close to doing the impossible during his administration, namely getting an Arab country (Egypt) and Israel to agree to a peace treaty that has been maintained to the present day. However, he could not do much about a bad economy caused by oil shocks and his attempt to do something about the Iranian hostage crisis led to the failed rescue attempt. This and an economy of high unemployment and high inflation caused him to lose reelection in 1980, ushering in the Third Turning with an Idealistic president, Ronald Reagan. Jimmy Carter got his real fame after the Presidency by his continuing social work in many countries across the globe, helping him earn the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002; he is the only President ever to receive that prestigious prize.
Next row: Row 7, the Regressive Presidents, who seemed to fill in a gap between the Second and the Third Turning.
