As America has longed to come together to all back the same President can we finial all agree?

Question

The one thing the United States can never do is back the same President. We came awful close with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy, but the first admidistration was plagued by haunting remains of anti/,Revolutionary's Lincoln never won back the South, and John F. had pulled this country to its closest the day he was shot and killed. Is this our strentgh or our weakness. Are we going to continue to seperate our values of our leaders? Ronald Reagan easily stole my grandfather's ( a true blue teamester, Demorcrat all the way....) vote away from his party because as he put it, " He is one tough cowboy" for years I debated with him for casting such a careless vote, never once had he agreed. Isn't loyality a wonderful quality?

Answer 1

Of your three examples, your argument only rings true of George Washington. He was overwhelmingly supported. Beloved, really.

Abraham Lincoln won the election in 1860 because the Democrats ran a northern candidate and a southern candidate, thereby splitting the vote and securing Lincoln's fairly narrow victory. In Lincoln's own time, he was unpopular and divisive. That's why the South seceded. Southern states threatened to secede from the Union if Lincoln won the presidency. His assassination and historical hindsight (realizing that the Union's position on slavery held the moral high ground) regarding his presidency are what make Lincoln such a popular president today.

JFK caused a lot of excitement in 1960 because he was young, vibrant, and Catholic (gasp!), but he actually didn't win by a very large margin. If the vote had gone the other direction in just a few states--and Republicans argue voter fraud swung the election in Kennedy's favor--then Nixon could have very well won in 1960. FDR, Nixon, and Reagan had sweeping victories. You only need to look at the electoral college map from those elections to see how intensely supported all three of those candidates were at the time.

Answer 2

First, I'm not sure I understand your question. However, you've made some statements that are factually inaccurate. I'm not sure about George Washington's election, because back then the congress, not the people through a popular election voted for President. Lincoln's election was arguable the most polarizing presidential election in history. Southern states threatened to succeed if Lincoln was elected, and they were true to their threat. Thus, we had the Civil War. John F. Kennedy, as Lincoln, may be a popular President in posterity, but he won a narrow election against Rich Nixon - it was one of the closest in history. What do you mean that the first administration was haunted? Lincoln did win the South - he won the war. He was assassinated prior to reconstruction. This country is diverse, we're not homogeneous Germans marching to the same drum. Dissent keeps our nation healthy. Quite frankly, I wish there was more.

Answer 3

I think your views are wrong. Washington was popular after he became President. Only 1/3 of the Colonists wanted to go to war with England.
Abe Lincoln was hated by just about everyone in the South. More than half of the North grew to dislike him as the war dragged on and because he instituted a draft of soldiers. Mr. Kennedy barely eked out a win in the election. He only became loved after he was assassinated. He was only President for three years. He did OK during the Cuban missle crisis. But his administration screwed up the Bay of Pigs invasion. So his record was 1 and 1.

Ronald Reagan was an excellent President. He did a good job. He turned Jimmy Carter's economic collapse into 12 years of unprecedented economic prosperity.

You are creating your own version of history.

Answer 4

Lincoln and Kennedy barely got in, Lincoln only won the second election via northern votes only. Lincoln ingored the Supreme court, suspended Habius Corpus and released only slaves in the south (not the north or both) hoping they would rise up and fight the Conferderates. He was no saint.

Kennedy was more like a Republican of today. He was the last Democratic president that supported tax cuts (unpopular w/ dem's), agianst abortion (Catholic remember) and pushed for funding the military and NASA (he wanted an American on the moon), all of which made him unpopular with his own party. He sent Advisors to Veitnam (which later Johnson turned into war, Nixon a Republican Pres, got us out).

Yes, your Grandfather was a wise man, you should have listened to him.

Answer 5

Americans made a big mistake when we preserved our national unity to support a war against Iraq that many of us harbored doubts about. There was plenty of public information in 2002 and 2003 that showed that Saddam was not an imminent threat . UN inspectors were in Iraq verifying there were no WMDs in the fall and winter of 2002-3. By the time of the invasion the inspectors had made 400 unscheduled inspections and had found nothing.

But nearly all the Democrats went along with Bush's hasty and poorly justified plan to attack Iraq in the spring of 2003. What thanks did the compliant Democrats get? Republicans have rewritten the history of this "war on terrorism" to paint Democrats as traitors who opposed every anti-terrorist action Bush took including all attempts to get Bin Laden. And, of course, the war on Iraq is a disaster and a training ground for more terrorists. Although national unity is nice, intelligent opposition and questioning can force our leaders to be a bit more honest and to put the security of the US ahead of that of its "best friend" in the middle east.

Answer 6

JFK was not a popular president, Lincoln was so popular that the South seceded from the union. On the flip side, Regan was quite popular. Some of our best President's have made very unpopular and tough decision's that were much later perceived to be great.

Answer 7

I think that back then during those president's times the communication was lacking. People did not hear for months what was going on. The population was also a lot less than what it is now. We are just much better informed these days and like the old saying goes you can't please everyone. I think with better and faster communication has come tougher times. The government didn't used to meddle so much and there were a lot fewer laws and restriction on people.

Answer 8

If you are asking if all American voters can agree on one person to be president, the answer is no.

If you are asking if all Americans will all like the person who is currently president at any particular time, the answer is no.

If you are simply declaring that America has longed to come together and agree to back the current president, then I say that is incorrect.

People want others to back their guy. i.e., I would never agree to support Bill Clinton, or Hilary, or Barak Hussein Obama or even McCain or Giulani. Never. But, I want yall to support my guy, Ron Paul!

Answer 9

The very thing you lament is what America is all about: people being free to dissent and criticize. There are countries that have the people all speaking with one voice: Nazi Germany, the USSR, North Korea--to name a few.

Our values-those of Americans, not the extreme right--include dissent--an criticism. Or have you forgotten--in America our leaders are accountable to the people. Not the other way around.

Answer 10

"Blind" loyalty to any person or political party is extremely destructive. This allows con artists such as the GW Bush crew to maintain a following even though they are the worst admin in history.