Babyboomer Presidents

 Baby Boomer Presidents

I’m a baby boomer, as are most of my friends along with about 20% of the American population. You know, this huge group that, as Ken Dychtwald so elegantly put it, is moving through our society like a pig through a python - and many of us are now staring at the tail! Something recently dawned on me. We had four consecutive presidents from my generation (before we backed up one generation for the current one.) That's 28 years of baby boomer presidential leadership: two Democrats, one Republican and an “Other.” Surely, we can draw some conclusions about how they did now.  

So who are these guys?

                        First, Bubba.

 
 If you advertised for the position of baby boomer president, William Jefferson Clinton (young, born 1946) would probably be precisely the kind of person that you would want. From a humble background, he was highly educated, fancied himself a visionary, new age thinker and was a brilliant politician. He out-thought and out-flanked the Republicans at every turn; he was able to defeat a sitting president (who had just won a war, no less!) He did this because he understood how people think and what they want - and made them THINK he could get it for them. He was also lucky - the 90's brought a booming economy (due mostly to demographics - thanks again, boomers!) 

So with a strong economy and budget surpluses he was re-elected with an opportunity to really propel the country into the next millennium on the proper trajectory. Instead . . . he will be remembered more for Monica Lewinsky than his policy brilliance - a YALE-educated lawyer who quibbled over what the meaning of “is” is. 

He was a man who was so morally shallow that he couldn’t manage to keep his most basic urges under wraps until he at least got out of office. Just as Nixon’s Watergate consumed his last 2 years in office, the sex scandal and his impeachment caused Clinton to lose focus on the important issues such as the growth of terrorism and looming income inequality from continuing policies that started under Reagan. Perhaps the worst legacy of his downfall is the damage done to the mindset of the nation’s voters and from that we got our second baby boomer president.

Bill Clinton ended up being an empty suit.

Next Up, W                                                                                                       “W”

                                  .                                     

George W. Bush (Born 1946) After Clinton, Bush was quite a change. He came from political royalty and carried the title of “compassionate conservative” on his sleeve as clearly as his evangelical zeal. In an election against another baby boomer (and Harvard grad, Al Gore) he was the first president in 112 years to lose the popular vote - by 500,000 - but win the electoral college. Despite his somewhat slacker image  his response to 9/11 showed a depth of character that seemed unexpected. In addition, he used his newfound popularity and power to achieve a number of political breakthroughs such as tax cuts (mostly for the rich) and new benefits for seniors - unfortunately, both unfunded. In short, George W Bush, Yale AND Harvard educated, seemed to be the exact opposite - and much more desirable - example of a baby boomer and then . . . the disastrous Iraq war.

As more time passes it’s obvious that his Iraq adventure was the terrible mistake that many of us felt at the time. With the fighting still raging in Afghanistan (another mistake which, 20 years later, is just now ending)  it was wrong in all aspects: wrong time, wrong decision, wrong strategy and wrong execution. On the domestic front two unfunded wars, tax cuts and massive entitlement spending were the beginning of such huge and growing deficits that it became difficult to imagine how we would ever bring them under control (sadly, they’ve only gotten worse.) He encouraged the deregulation of the banks which, of course, would later lead to a deep credit crisis. This series of terrible mistakes may have been a function of his limited capabilities or the people he surrounded himself with - neo-cons and reactionaries - but the results are the same, America’s future became a lot less certain.

Despite all that, George too was still able to get re-elected. Proof of what? You guessed it - American voters are dopes. More proof? The worst recession since the Great Depression and “Great job, Brownie!” on Hurricane Katrina.

Bush too was an empty suit.

                      Hope and Change

Could anyone be more different from Bush than Barack Obama? (Born 1961 - in the US) Actually, more different that Clinton too. Obama came in with great fanfare, the whole hope and change thing; our first black – okay, half black – president.  He was a great (if teleprompted speaker) and a very good politician. After the disaster of the Bush years, he was almost guaranteed to at least look good.

He inherited two wars and a battered economy so he had almost nowhere to go but up and in some ways he probably did as good as he could given the messes he inherited - including the cretinous Mitch McConnell-led Republicans. With the economy in tatters he was kind of in triage mode however it did recover and was in decent shape when handed off to the next boomer president.

  

Yet it is in “leadership” that he failed the most. He came into office with his party in control of all branches and an opportunity to put his “hope and change” theme into action. What do we get? Who continued the wars and Guantanamo detention? Who had his own “surge" in Afghanistan? Who okayed drone attacks on people in foreign countries and approved continued spying on US and allied citizens. Remember: this from a guy who won the Nobel Peace prize!  What the . . .?!

And Obamacare, his “signature” accomplishment, was a healthcare law that was so convoluted, complicated and ineffective (at first) that it almost, ALMOST makes the Republican histrionics about it seem okay.  He could have used his rhetorical skills and charisma to craft something that really would have altered the way we do things but instead took the easy way by allowing the worst kind of sausage making in Congress to get a bill, any bill, passed. (Of course, it turned out far better than the Republicans plan which was zero.) In addition, income inequality grew even more on his watch. And don't get me started on the banking industry – not a single, sociopath banker went to jail or even lost their bonus on his watch. Yowser! 

His record and the country is now that much the worse for it. Yet again a baby boomer president was rewarded with a second term despite a lot of  evidence to the contrary. In many ways Obama was the most disappointing of the lot – until now. I guess, in the end, he was a nice guy and another HARVARD educated lawyer - but also an empty suit.

Fourth Straight Baby Boomer                                                              And Oh Boy!                                                                                    

Finally, it’s not unusual for Americans to elect people (all men so far) to the presidency who are congenitally unqualified for the position - we are nothing if not optimists - but what a doozy Donald J Trump is! (Born 1946) He lost the popular vote - by 3 million this time - and like Bush Jr he too won only by the Electoral College. An extraordinary liar (even by politician’s standards) plagued by the Dunning-Krueger effect, off the scale narcissist, total lack of any sense of morality (again, against the low standards of politicians) and no noticeable ability or interest in management. Oh yeah, and he made George W look like Winston Churchill in speaking ability! Finally, on Jan 6^th he singlehandedly managed to lead an assault on the government in a way not experienced in our 233 years as a republic.

To his credit, he did strike a chord with a large minority of Americans who have felt (rightly) marginalized or forgotten. Sadly, not only did he not help them, he took advantage of their adoration like the grifter he is. Even worse, he imbued them with a distrust of democracy that will plague us for years. Oddly - since it is after all America - he didn’t get re-elected. (No, really, he did NOT get re-elected.)

As a positive he didn't attend Harvard or Yale. (In fact, there's no evidence that he actually went to college.)

His signal achievement was to make all previous presidents – and current one too - look better. 

Empty suit cannot properly describe his presidency.

 

Conclusion: 1946 was a bad year for babyboomers?

Okay, seriously, how are we baby boomer’s doing in our first opportunities to lead the country? Well, I would say so far these guys have done a better job of exposing most of our generation’s worst features rather than our best. Among them: over-educated arrogance, self-centeredness, immature world views and overconfidence in our abilities. 

People sometimes forget that JFK was the first president who was born in the 20^th century. He was far from perfect but he brought youthful energy and a 20^th century mindset to the office. I had high hopes for my generation, that our “best and brightest” would do the same for the 21^st century. I thought we - the luckiest generation in the history of the WORLD - would repay our good fortune by being good stewards of our country. Instead, we decided to pull up the ladder behind us . . . and offered empty suits (or worse) to the country. Great sigh.

Perhaps we can redeem ourselves if we can get a female baby boomer in there, someone that is not an empty suit. (NOTE: this is not a call for Hillary!) But it better be soon or otherwise I guess you're up, Gen Xer’s and good luck.

PS
 And please, no more Ivy League guys – how about UMD or St Cloud State?!

Music to fit the mood . . .

Abraham, Martin and John   Dion