Generational Politics, Presidential Division

Age, as the cliche has it, is but a number. Calendar age, anyway, as far as one's mental faculties go. (Of course, when it's necessary to have the hideously homuncular Sen. "Holy Joe" Lieberman at your side to correct your continuously repeated mistakes, or when your response to the question, "Just what have you done for civil rights for Americans of more recent African heritage?" is a series of hems & haws, a long silence, a request to repeat the first part of the question, & then some blather that you've voted for lower taxes for all Americans to increase opportunity, as if people getting the Earned Income Credit just need lower taxes to put their fabulous entrepreneurial ideas to work, it's hard to say if you're a senile asshole or a moronic, uncaring asshole.) Beyond varying mental abilities at varying ages, this Gen X, Baby Boomer, Gen Whatever division into specific cohorts, all of whom allegedly behave & believe the same way, based on birth year, is as ridiculous as astrology. All that being said, let's take a gander at all of the Presidents since WWII, & what some of their ( military) experiences were (according to Wikipedia, anyhoo). Harry S Truman, b. 1884, member of the Missouri Nat'l. Guard, served as an artillery officer in WWI. Vice-Presidency lead to his becoming Pres. Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, b. 1890, West Point, served during WWs I & II, never was in combat, became president because he won the war in Europe. (Yes, we know. We're keeping it short here. And he probably received many votes because dumb ol' Murkins really thought he whipped Hitler single-handedly.) John Fitzgerald Kennedy, b. 1917, joined U. S. Navy September 1941 (before Pearl Harbor) served as an officer in WWII (PT-109, etc.). Terms in House of Representatives & Senate led to his Presidency. Lyndon Baines Johnson, b. 1908, was commissioned in the U. S. Navy Reserves December 1941 (post Pearl Harbor) while remaining in Congrefs, made a fact-finding mission to the South Pacific & rec'd. the Silver Star for nothin'. (The Wikipedia entry is worth a look.) Vice-Presidency & murder led to his Presidency. Richard Milhous "Tricky Dick" Nixon, b. 1913, USN supply officer in the South Pacific during WWII. No one can figure how or why he became Pres. Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., b. 1913 (as Leslie Lynch King, Jr.) served in the USN as an officer during WWII aboard the USS Monterey, which was never attacked, but as a result of the infamous typhoon of December 1944 caught fire. Wikipedia states: "Because of the extent of the fires, Admiral Halsey ordered Captain Ingersoll to abandon ship. Instead Captain Ingersoll ordered Ford to lead a fire brigade below. After five hours he and his team had put out the fire." Not actual combat, but not bad. More than Nixon ever did. Attained Presidency due to dumb luck & Nixon's fuck-ups. James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., b. 1924, only graduate of the US Naval Academy to become President (so far, & you can bet our fingers are crossed). Served on submarines, no combat, left Navy after his father's death to take over family business. Governorship of Georgia led to presidency. Ronald Wilson Reagan, b. 1911. Straight outta Wkipedia:

After completing fourteen home-study Army Extension Courses, Reagan enlisted in the Army Enlisted Reserve on April 29, 1937, as a private assigned to Troop B, 322nd Cavalry at Des Moines, Iowa. He was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Cavalry on May 25, 1937, and on June 18 was assigned to the 323rd Cavalry. Reagan was ordered to active duty for the first time on April 18, 1942. Due to his nearsightedness, he was classified for limited service only, which excluded him from serving overseas. His first assignment was at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation at Fort Mason, California, as a liaison officer of the Port and Transportation Office. Upon the approval of the Army Air Force (AAF), he applied for a transfer from the Cavalry to the AAF on May 15, 1942, and was assigned to AAF Public Relations and subsequently to the 1st Motion Picture Unit (officially, the "18th AAF Base Unit")in Culver City, California. On January 14, 1943 he was promoted to First Lieutenant and was sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of This Is The Army at Burbank, California. He returned to the 1st Motion Picture Unit after completing this duty and was promoted to Captain on July 22, 1943. In January 1944, Captain Reagan was ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the opening of the sixth War Loan Drive. He was re-assigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit on November 14, 1944, where he remained until the end of World War II. He was recommended for promotion to Major on February 2, 1945, but this recommendation was disapproved on July 17 of that year. He returned to Fort MacArthur, California, where he was separated from active duty on December 9, 1945. By the end of the war, his units had produced some 400 training films for the AAF.

A nearsighted wimp who took correspondence courses to get into the Army Reserve!! We assume it was his show bidness abilities, as well as the deal w/ Iran ("We do not negotiate w/ terrorists!") that got him into office. George Herbert Walker Bush, b. 1924, served in WWII as the then-youngest US naval aviator (officer) ever, got shot down, etc. No wonder Sonny Boy hates & envies him. Made Pres. from Vice-Pres., & by lying about his opponent. William Jefferson Clinton, b. 1946 (as William Jefferson Blythe III) did not murder Asian babies for the US gov't. because he was busy educating himself. (See also Richard "Dick" Cheney: "Other priorities.") Became Pres. because Ross Perot cut into Poppy's votes. George Walker Bush, b. 1946, allegedly flew a few planes in the Texas Air Nat'l. Guard, claimed to have transferred to the Alabama ANG, where no one remembers him showing up for anything. Illegally & unconstitutionally appointed to Presidency by Stupreme Court. (His daddy's business & political buddies handed it to him on a silver platter as they had every other time in his life he fucked something up.) So we see that no enlisted men have reached the presidency in the post-WWII yrs., & probably never in US history. (You look it up, our time here is short & bittersweet, like life itself.) Have to be an officer. We also note that military duties performed seem to have nothing to do w/ electoral success, & we wonder aloud what the hell military service has to do w/ foreign affairs capability in the first place. Even more important, though, is age. There is a progression; each post-WWII Pres. younger than his predecessor, except when the unexpected happens (JFK/LBJ) or the same age (Though the Democrat serves earlier: Carter, then Bush the Elder, Clinton, then Bush the Punk. Nixon/Ford, same age, but it was a natural succession) the only exception being someone significantly older than, as it turns out, any other Pres., & 13 yrs. older than his predecessor, Mr. 666 himself, Ronald Wilson Reagan. And it was his foolish ideas (apparently inculcated in him by his second father-in-law, Nancy's pater, Loyal Davis) that set the stage for the "supply-side" economic decline we're in now. All that in mind, let's see what exactly is up w/ the presumptive big party candidates this go-round, Barack Hussein Obama II (Learn something new many – but not every – days!!) & John Sidney McCain III. (Did you also note the number of "jrs." & "IIIs," the similarity in Bush names, & those whose names were changed from their birth names? Hmmm.) Obama II, b. 1961, no draft for him to worry about, & able to educate himself & find employment w/o signing up for a hitch. McCain III, b. 1936, heir to a long naval tradition, we've heard it all before. But can we afford a President who isn't even a so-called Boomer? We saw (& are still living through) what happened to This Great Nation of Ours™ when Murkins went against the grain & elected Old Man Reagan, who was only 13 yrs. older than his opponent, Jimmy Carter. J. Sidney III is 25 yrs. older than the man running against him!! What will his old-fashioned ideas do to us? "We'll have a contest to develop alternative energy sources," says he. And: "I get my foreign policy advice from lobbyists for one of the countries involved." Don't forget: "There are going to be a lot more wars." Etc. Sheeesh!! We certainly aren't saying Sen. Obama is any prize. Despite the ravings of ancient droolers, talk radio hosts & the like, we fear that the junior Senator from Illinois is pretty much a triangulating neo-Clintonian wimp, & is far from the radical Marxist firebrand we'd like. Nonetheless, this imaginary secret socialist/stealth Moooslim seems to be scaring the pants off those playing the Wingnut Wurlitzer. (Of course, they like having their pants scared off, especially in public rest rooms, or when the pants can be replaced w/ diapers in which to poop.) But when he pauses before answering a question, he gives the appearance, anyway, of thinking about his answer, rather than the the Sen. McCain hem & haw, silence, "What was that again?" deer-in-the-headlights, "How can I get out of this one?" approach. And the Democratic nominee can string together several sentences in a row, & w/o having to sound out the words, as if he's hearing them for the first time, unlike certain recent Presidents who can seldom finish one sentence, let alone get off several in a row. (May not seem like much, but your editor has had an almost physical repulsion to the voices, faces & public speaking personas of every Pres. since LBJ. Sen. Obama hasn't stared rubbing us the wrong way yet, & don't think we aren't happy about that.) These are the choices. The concepts of the eternal "You kids get off my lawn!!" Generation, or some guy w/, at minimum, half a brain on the Boomer/X cusp, who's never been an officer in the armed services. (Next former grunt/squid who runs may just have our vote.)