Lyndon B. Johnson, the last U.S. President

Lyndon B. Johnson, the last U.S. President 

by Bill Russo

Regarding all the turmoil currently roiling Washington I read a meme on Facebook that said...

 "Welcome to the U.S. where we pretend our problems are created by 1 man and ignore the fact that both parties have been failing us 4 decades."

That hit a chord with me and I began to turn the pages of my mind of the last 40 years.  It seems like L B J, was the last 'real' President of the United States. Among other things, he brought about The Great Society, Medicare, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

His only failing was that he could not win the war he inherited from Kennedy, the Viet Nam Conflict. When Kennedy came to office on a wave of hope, there were 1000 American advisors in N V M. 

By the time of his tragic assassination, he had deployed more than 20,000 American warriors to what by then had become more than a conflict, almost a full scale war. 

L B J thought we were in too deep to back off. It was an understandable, but debatable, position. Following LBJ we have had 9 presidents, 7 elected by the people and two appointed by the Electoral college despite losing the election.

For purposes of discussion only and with actual malice toward none, here's a rundown, a score card, if you will, of the NINE men who have lived in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since that day late in January 1969 when Lyndon B, moved back to Stonewall, Texas or someother ranch in some other Western town near his birth place. 

The list includes, in order, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush two, Obama, and Trump. Debatably only the two Bushes and Barry Obama seem to have actually helped the country.

Reagan destroyed the unions and the transportation industry, Nixon broke our hearts with a single lie. Gerry Ford was like our crazy uncle, a nice guy, but not much on the ball.

Jimmy Carter was another 'loco tio', a good guy who we liked but unable to get any work done. Clinton was another crazy uncle type who you expected to get locked up for being a drunk and tusslin' with women who were not named Mrs. Cliinton. 

Barry turned out to be a real gentleman and lent grace to the office, even if he didn't really get anything done. (Yes I've heard of Obama care, but having been around the block many times, I can tell you that in 1964 we had better healthcare for workers and it did NOT COST US A DIME - it was paid for by our employers!)

My FB friend Laurie Champion changed my mind a bit on Barry when she said, "Yeah Obama helped us alright he brought all the Muslims, wrecked our health insurance and made it sky rocket in cost for those of us who had insurance we liked. Gave insurance to others that no one would accept anywhere. No thanks Obummer did not help anyone I know. He did away with the laws we had in place to stop non born citizens and Muslims from holding office. he did a lot of things that we are paying for right now. My parents also had what you refer to here: " I can tell you that in 1964 we had better healthcare for workers and it did NOT COST US A DIME " Those were the days before we had such a for profit medical field."

After reading Laurie's comments I did give Barry a failing grade in those areas and sentenced him to detention!

Now, onto number nine......

 Trump, the appointed CEO is still in office so I can't rate him. I hate him. But I also kind of like him. As a President, so far all I can say is, he had a very entertaining reality TV show called "I Will Fire Everybody", or something like that. I can't remember the actual name.