Greetings, fellow voters! Four years have gone by since our last presidential election and it’s time to vote again. To say the least, this year of a deadly pandemic and politics has been overwhelmingly exhausting. I will be so glad when both of them are over.
Since the office of president in the United States was established in 1789, forty-five men have served as president. The first, George Washington, won a unanimous vote of the Electoral College. It has not happened since.
The other day I sat down and read the presidential list, beginning with Washington and ending with Trump. What an interesting and diverse group of 45 individuals have served in the same governing position!
I was 21 years old when I cast my first presidential vote in 1960. I grew up in a politically divided family. Discussions were heated. I vividly remember watching conventions on television with my grandfather. So, I registered as a Republican because my mother’s family were dogmatic Republicans.
Dad was an equally dogmatic Democrat from Missouri like Harry S. Truman. He and ‘his’ president were both “The buck stops here” kind of men. However, dad later voted for, praised and supported Ronald Reagan!
Along the voting path, I became an Independent voter. I vote for the person that I feel is most qualified, honest, has the country’s best interests at heart and is experienced enough to run the country. I am still a registered Republican, but misguided party lines or candidates don’t buy my vote.
Since my first vote, no two elections have been alike. Some results I agreed with. Others I didn’t. What I do agree with is the system. It’s the only way to make your voice heard and it mostly works.
One of my voting adventures was after Chuck and I moved our little family of five to Ventura, California, in 1964. At that time polling places were sometimes held in homes on the outskirts of town.
I volunteered our garage. A couple of other neighbors and I went to training classes and on election day we opened the garage door at 8 a.m. and worked steadily until the “polls” closed at 8 p.m. Then we counted the votes!
After we moved to Oregon in 1989, I remember voting at the Cottage Grove Grange until vote by mail began in 2005. Yea! As far as I’m concerned, that was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I think most Oregonians agree. Hopefully, the rest of the country will get on the band wagon soon.
Ballots have been mailed for next month’s election and soon we’ll know which candidate has won. Who will win? Who knows? Let’s be honest, as we rush to the finish line, it’s been a nasty campaign trail, complicated by the horrible Covid virus and more.
Historically (minus a pandemic), this is not unusual. Almost anyone can run for President and say what they want to. Running for the highest office in the land has few qualifications. If I read the Constitution correctly, you and I could run for president. It says:
“No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States." Term limits were added later.
The result has been a mixed bag of outstanding, good, bad and mediocre presidents. I read somewhere that four years in the Oval Office is a bit of a fruit salad of domestic, foreign, political and personal activity. You must be prepared because you never know what will be in the bowl.
The following names are often listed as the top 10 rated (or Great) presidents. Most of the lists I saw based their decisions on leadership qualities; closely followed by education, morals, lawfulness.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln often vie for the first spot. Sometimes (but not always!) they are listed in this order:
Abraham Lincoln
Franklin D. Roosevelt
George Washington
Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Jefferson
Harry S. Truman
Woodrow Wilson
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Ronald Reagan
There are also lists of what are called “forgotten presidents.” These presidents usually served early on for only one term and/or died in office.They are rated as average or poor by scholars suggesting that people are more likely to remember “the greats.” In no particular order they are:
Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
Warren G. Harding
Chester A. Arthur
Rutherford B. Hayes
James Buchanan,
Martin Van Buren,
Zachary Taylor,
James Garfield
William McKinley
Soon we will know who has inherited the #46 fruit bowl. So, if you haven't already, agree with the system and VOTE!
P.S. Still unsure who to vote for? Check out some online quizzes like:
Contact Betty Kaiser’s Chatterbox by email at: bchatty@bettykaiser.com
