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Originally Posted by lookout123
ouch, you got me there HM. i wasn't even thinking about the 20th/21st century bit.
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I actually spent a lot of time on that issue. I took a look at the US presidents at the turn of the 20th century.
We started off with McKinley, who started the Spanish-American war based on 'bad intelligence' about the destruction of the Maine. We may have him to thank for Hawaii being a US state and for many US almost-states like Puerto Rico, but he did so by fighting Spain and conquering the local populations, some of whom fought against us for independence.
Harding was basically a marshmallow who let himself be led.
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Decidedly conservative on trade and economic issues, Harding favored pro-business government policies. He allowed Andrew Mellon to push through tax cuts for the rich, stopped antitrust actions, and opposed organized labor.
Harding knew little about foreign affairs when he assumed office, preferring to give Secretary of State Hughes a free hand. Hughes was concerned with securing foreign markets for wealthy American banks, such as the one run by John D. Rockefeller. Hughes and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover used the Fordney-McCumber Tariff to secure oil markets in the Middle East, especially in modern-day Iraq and Iran. His administration revised Germany's war debts downward through legislation, passed in 1923, known as the Dawes Plan. Hughes also called for a naval conference with nine other nations to freeze naval spending in an effort to reduce spending.
Shaken by the talk of corruption among the friends he had appointed to office, Harding and his wife, Florence "Flossie" Harding, organized a tour of the western states and Alaska in an attempt to meet people and explain his policies. After becoming ill with what was at the time attributed to ptomaine (food) poisoning, Harding had a heart attack and died quietly in his sleep. The rumors flew that Flossie had poisoned the President to save him from being engulfed in the charges of corruption that swept his administration. The Hardings never had any children; Flossie died of kidney disease in 1924.
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Coolidge was a least honest, although he didn't stop the Great Depression, although it is thought that he saw it coming.
Hoover inherited Coolidges mess. He also pushed volunteerism, which may be where GWB is getting his faith-based intiative ideas from.
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Hoover came into the presidency as one of the foremost proponents of public-private cooperation -- what was termed “volunterism” -- to maintain a high-growth economy. Volunterism was not premised on governmental coercion or intervention, which Hoover feared would destroy precious American ideals like individualism and self-reliance, but on cooperation among individuals and groups. Hoover did not reject government regulation out of hand, however; in fact, he supported regulating industries such as radio broadcasting and aviation that he believed served the public good. But he preferred a voluntary, non-governmental approach to economic matters, the better, he reasoned, to protect what he called the “American character.”
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Of course, Hoover was one of the first presidents to publicly screw over veterans, who had been promised money by Congress. The debt would not be paid until FDR's administration and over his objection that the priority should be the Depresssion.
Certainly a mixed bag of flawed men and policies. Both Roosevelts rose out of these men's mistakes. T. Roosevelt gained a lot of his reputation from McKinley's war and FDR picked up from Hoovers (really Coolidges) Depression.
So the public does learn from it's mistakes and choose a real leader after a series of mediocre seatwarmers.
I have a real hope for the 21st century. GWB has all three houses and all of the cards and still the country has an expensive war, rising debt, and the only plan to save Social Security contains a provision that would sap it's funding.
A lot of the true moderates and independents who gave him his slim margin on election day are smacking themselves in the head right now. Still, the Democrats might drop the ball by not giving the public the best man for the job. The Republicans might drop the ball for choosing another bitter partisan, or, worst case, Jeb Bush in hopes of a 3-man 6-term dynasty.
We live in interesting times. G-d help us.
