Monday, July 12, 2004
Periodic Presidents 7: Regressive Presidents
The Presidents in column 7 of the Periodic Table are the Regressive Presidents. I call them that because they seem to be overshadowed by immediate past Presidents, and because they seem to regress to an earlier time. They come near the end of a Second Turning and are a sign that society is getting tired of the tumult and that people want to just get on with their lives. They are John Tyler, William Howard Taft, and Gerald Ford, and note that they sometimes come before a Supportive President and sometimes after.
John Tyler became President when William Henry Harrison (who is not one of the Periodic Presidents) died after serving only one month. He was steadfast in his views and therefore made political enemies, helping to defeat him in 1844. He was from the South and had definitely pro-Southern and pro-slavery views. John Adams accused him of being from the Jeffersonian Virginia school. He lived for a time after his Presidency, which did include some foreign achievements, and eventually wound up in the Confederate House of Representatives.
William Howard Taft was somewhat of a letdown after the courageous bellicoseness of Theodore Roosevelt. After Roosevelt's two terms, Taft ran for President at Roosevelt's urging and easily defeated William Jennings Bryan. Congress passed an unpopular law, Taft signed it and so the public blamed him for it. Hence his presidency did not seem to do much, and it ended when Theodore turned against him in 1912 and ran on a third party ticket, ensuring Woodrow Wilson's election.
Gerald Ford was our nation's only non-elected President, unless you include the present one. He picked up where Nixon left off and carried us back to the early Nixon period, featuring opening up relations with other nations and maintaining the economy, which was bad, the best he could.
The next set of presidents, in column 8, will be the Idealistic Presidents, known for their optimism and their making people feel good about achieving something for themselves.
John Tyler became President when William Henry Harrison (who is not one of the Periodic Presidents) died after serving only one month. He was steadfast in his views and therefore made political enemies, helping to defeat him in 1844. He was from the South and had definitely pro-Southern and pro-slavery views. John Adams accused him of being from the Jeffersonian Virginia school. He lived for a time after his Presidency, which did include some foreign achievements, and eventually wound up in the Confederate House of Representatives.
William Howard Taft was somewhat of a letdown after the courageous bellicoseness of Theodore Roosevelt. After Roosevelt's two terms, Taft ran for President at Roosevelt's urging and easily defeated William Jennings Bryan. Congress passed an unpopular law, Taft signed it and so the public blamed him for it. Hence his presidency did not seem to do much, and it ended when Theodore turned against him in 1912 and ran on a third party ticket, ensuring Woodrow Wilson's election.
Gerald Ford was our nation's only non-elected President, unless you include the present one. He picked up where Nixon left off and carried us back to the early Nixon period, featuring opening up relations with other nations and maintaining the economy, which was bad, the best he could.
The next set of presidents, in column 8, will be the Idealistic Presidents, known for their optimism and their making people feel good about achieving something for themselves.
