Recently it occurred to me that no matter how bad how presidents tend to be, their successors are usually worse. So much worse, in fact, that we’re obliged to re-think our terrible opinions of previous presidents.
Take Nixon, the president who was impeached and resigned from office. “Well, he was a vindictive anti-semite who tried to subvert the Constitution… but on the other hand, he did establish the Environmental Protection Agency. So maybe he wasn’t that bad.”
Or Reagan. “Well, he did slash taxes on the rich while spending billions, laying the foundations for long-term budget deficits and widening economic inequality that would have hugely negative social consequences… but on the other hand, he did raise taxes later in a display of responsible fiscal policy. So maybe he wasn’t that bad.”
To make this a bipartisan blog, I’ll include Bill Clinton. “Well, he was a womanizer, and he lied about a stupid affair with an intern… but on the other hand, he did preside over the biggest post-WWII US economic expansion up to that time, and he did balance the budget. So he couldn’t have been that bad.”
George W. Bush? “Well, he did commit arguably the biggest strategic blunder in American foreign policy history, losing trillions of dollars that could have been spent on education and infrastructure on a never-ending war in Iraq… but on the other hand, he did help a lot of HIV-positive people in Africa. So maybe he wasn’t that bad.”
And now we have Donald J. Trump. It’s difficult to say where his presidency will lead, but we can guess.
“Well, he was a raging narcissistic sociopath…”
Here I’m tempted to go full Tevye and say, there is no other hand!
But let’s plow ahead anyway.
“… and he gained power with the help of a foreign autocrat. He also decimated the budget, blew up income inequality, degraded our institutions, disgraced himself and others who worked for him, started trade wars that costs billions of dollars and real wars that cost thousands of lives. In the end, he was impeached, ejected from office, and eventually thrown in jail.
“But on the other hand, he did help make Twitter profitable.”
Who could make Trump look good, by comparison? All hail, President Thanos!
Impossible, you might think. Thanos is a fictional character. So is Trump’s fairy-tale public persona. “Well, Thanos did kill half the people in the United States, and in the universe. But on the other hand, that half was the forty-seven percent.”
What other potential president could make Trump look good? You tell me.