Umm, let me read you a little of this Hedley Donovan, account from 1984. The reason why is because as you well know, what's wonderful about history is it gives us some context, right? It shows us that some of the problems we're dealing with today might in fact be a lot older than we think and it might be a lot more common and long lasting a situation than we think. Which is both, comforting in some ways, and discomforting in others. Donovan is writing this - and as I said he knew 9 Presidents personally, so he wrote a book about em, you know, sort of “my time with 9 Presidents” - and at the end he sort of wrote a summary of his thoughts on the whole issue and what not. So this is um, a section he wrote on the job specifications of the oval office, you know, based on the people that he'd known. He's writing this right after Ronald Reagan defeated former vice president Walter Mondale to get his second term in office, so bear in mind that's what um, the events in his recent history are, and he writes back in 1984:
“In 1984, as in 1976 and 1980, a good many Americans thought neither Presidential candidate was really equipped for the job. Few of the 37,000,000 people who voted for Walter Mondale, outside from his immediate family, did so with deep enthusiasm. His votes came from the hardest of hardcore democrats and/or people offended or frightened by Reagan. Among Reagan's 53,000,000 voters, there were plenty of fervent admirers, but also critics who thought he was merely the lesser evil. And among the other 83,000,000 voting age Americans who didn't bother with the election it must be assumed that a fair number didn't think either candidate was worth the trouble.”
He writes, QUOTE:
“How did the machinery for identifying potential Presidents, nominating candidates, and choosing winners come to be so seriously out of sync with what the electorate itself see's as the modern requirements of the office? From this literate, democratic society of some 236,000,000 people, compare the political we are now producing, with the leadership of the 13 colonies in the the late 18th century. For all its familiarity, the point is still a painful one. From 3,000,000 people living on the edge of a wilderness: Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, Franklin, the Adams'”
END QUOTE
He continues talking about the Presidents he's known and he considers Franklin D Roosevelt to be the first of the modern Presidents as he calls them, and he writes QUOTE
“The modern Presidency begins with Franklin Roosevelt. And 9 men as of December 1984, have held the job. In the 28 years from 1933 to 1961, we had one great President, FDR. One very Good President, Dwight Eisenhower, and by my ranking one good, to very good President Harry Truman. None of the next 4 presidents could be put in any of those categories.”
He then goes down the list of presidents and then writes QUOTE
“It is not an inspiring roll call. William Luchtenburg of the University of North Carolina, author of a number of notable studies of Franklin D Roosevelt and the New Deal suggested in 1983 that the country might simply be in a fallow period of political thought.”
Now he's quoting professor Luchtenburg QUOTE
“ We cannot expect our presidents to rise very far above the level of thought in the political culture” END QUOTE
