Posted on 11/23/2018 12:51:35 PM PST by Kaslin
The problem with the 24 hour news cycle is that news memory lasts only 24 hours. Certainly it does not last 70 years – say back to 1962 and Baker v. Carr, which established guidelines regarding the political-question doctrine, or even a few years earlier, to President Eisenhower and how he ran the ship of state.
And even if political memory did last longer, most people in this country under the age of 70 and would only know of things that happened years before were born if they were to engage in a serious study of history, which is rare today. Today, the media perspective on news events is not reflective of the cumulative events that have formed our society, but what someone, ostensibly speaking for the “we," wants to happen now – at this moment.
Still, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and there really was a viable United States before you were born.
And once upon a time there was a president who was both firm and polite and also very determined to have an orderly country: President Dwight David Eisenhower, a former Five Star Army General, a rank obtained by roughly a dozen people throughout our history.
He was the President who called out the military to protect nine African American kids who, because of a Court decision, were suddenly entitled to attend the previously all White Little Rock Central High; but Governor Orville Faubus blocked the school house doors with Alabama National Guard troops.
Eisenhower federalized all 10,000 soldiers of the Arkansas National Guard, took it out of Faubus' control and sent the 101st Airborne in full battledress to Little Rock.
Eisenhower said he would not allow the country to descend into anarchy.
This President did not suffer indignities very well. As Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during WW2, and NATO’s first Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe (SACEUR) in December 1950, he understood that order and decorum was the way that government organizations worked best. He brought that same expectation to his presidency, and when the country was on the verge of great disruption in1957, he deployed the Army to maintain order.
Today, we have a President who is considered impolite. Certainly impolite when compared to Eisenhower; or is he? Eisenhower didn’t have to tolerate the same foul mouthed criticism that attends every action that Trump takes.
Trump’s impoliteness is no more than an “in kind” response to what is being dealt him. Like Eisenhower he doesn’t tolerate a lack of decorum from those working with or around him.
Of course, Eisenhower and Trump have very different styles. They each have very different backgrounds and life experiences. But, both made it to the top of their fields before reaching the White House.
Today’s President, President Trump, has also called out the Army, this time to quell potential massive disorder at our southern border. There is a great difference though. Today’s soldiers are relatively fewer in number in regards to their assigned task than the number sent to Arkansas in 1957; and the soldier’s task today is not on the front lines of the conflict as was the 101st in 1957. Today they are to be supportive of others who are taking the lead in repelling the invaders.
Somehow using the military to repel an invasion by foreigners is thought to be prohibited by Posse Comitatus, in the same way that it is considered inappropriate to use the military in a domestic policing role, which Eisenhower bucked, feeling it was necessary to use the military in what he considered was a particularly critical situation in Little Rock. But that having been said, both men have called upon the military, and both have been criticized by their critics for doing so.
But the two Presidents have something else in common: calling out rude reporters during a press conference. Admittedly there was no Jim Acosta attending Eisenhower’s press conferences; had there been, considering Acosta’s level of rudeness and complete lack of respect towards the Presidency, Eisenhower possibly would have secretly relished the days when he could have had someone like Acosta thrown in the stockade for insubordination.
But in fact there was a reporter who did incur Eisenhower’s wrath. Eisenhower did not yet want to publicly discuss something that was still being discussed privately. This reporter insisted upon asking a question about an issue Eisenhower was loathe to discuss.
In true Eisenhower style, he put his hands to his hips and told the press that the topic was not going to be discussed, and if they insisted upon bringing up the topic, he would simply stop holding press conferences – letting them know that the conferences were there to benefit the press more than the administration.
There was no outcry from the press. Neither was there a social media storm. And no court dared to intervene. The press understood that Eisenhower was the President, and certain decisions were left to him – especially within the White House itself, the President’s house.
Today we have a lower trial court deciding who can attend the President’s press conference in his house; and rather than telling the Court ‘where they can go’ regarding press conferences that he calls, this President is letting the reporters know that if there is a lack of decorum and respect for the office – he will merely end the conference early.
It would appear that for strong minded Presidents not much has changed – except that the media has simply become exponentially more rude. And while journalism’s rudeness towards our elected officials goes all the way back to Washington’s administration, this President may not be willing to buck the court all the way to the top. We will see.
My Father hated Eisenhower til the day he died. I never knew why.
I do know Daddy was a combat veteran of WWII and he hated him way back then. Oddly enough, he liked both Montgomery and Patton.
My father has said since 2015 says that Trump combined the best qualities of Ike and the Gipper - the two greatest presidents of his lifetime
Ike was a disaster for the economy. When he left office, marginal tax rates were still in the confiscatory 90’s, and economic stagnation was taking hold. He even vetoed a deregulatory natural gas bill. No supply sider, he was more concerned about balancing the budget than in growing revenues by growing the economy. The economy did not pick up until JFK, a Democrat, brought tax rates down.
p
You are correct in the details but consider that recessions almost always occur after a war ends.
Eisenhower was basically a good man, but he had an unfortunate habit of compromising with enemies who refused to compromise with him in return. He compromised with the congressional Democrats, but they refused to compromise with him in return (thus setting a pattern Republicans would continue to follow).
He compromised with Stalin, letting him into Eastern Europe first, and Stalin grabbed it. He compromised with Mao. He compromised with just about everyone. He was a nice guy, but didn’t seem to realize that our enemies were not so nice.
i would suggest Eisenhower’s treatment of Patton was the answer for his hatred. Patton was our winning General, but Ike preferred the boot-licker Omar Bradley and the incompetent Mark Clark over the genius of Patton. Furthermore, he sided with Montgomery repeatedly, especially when Patton disagreed with the English Poppycock. An example of the latter was Operation Market Garden which Patton denounced, but Montgomery had designed so Ike went along with Montgomery. Many of our troops paid the ultimate price because of Eisenhower who was simply a politician, not a fighting general. My opinion.
Another Montgomery planned operation which ended in tragedy was the Canadian landing in northern France.
Ike never commanded men in the field and had no idea what the common soldiers went through.
Ike also sucked up to every Englishman in his HQ. That included his driver, Kay Summersby, who he was having an affair with. He even saw to it she got American citizenship and a position in the WAC as his personal secretary.
When it came to materials and planning Montgomery got whatever he wanted. Montgomery had no problem appealing straight to Ike to get his way. Operation Market Garden was one such event. Patton predicted it would be a spectacular failure, and it was.
Even Ike’s staff became disgusted with his behavior towards the end. The ever loyal Bradley told Ike he shouldn’t take advantage of Patton the way he did.
One day when Ike was going on about him “allowing” Patton to command his COS, Gen Walter Beddell Smith, flat out told him to get over himself, “you didn’t make George Patton, George Patton made YOU”.
There was a lot to dislike about Eisenhower.
bump
I have mixed feelings on Ike’s Presidency. McArthur or Patton would have been better.
He was a poor party leader. He lost Congress in 1954 and didn’t get it back despite winning a landslide reelection, which was unthinkable and unprecedented in American history.
Despite his failings he still compares well to his successors other than Reagan and Trump, most of whom were complete disasters.
The horror of 1958 is on Ike’s head, too.
Ike was a centrist by the standards of the time, he pretty much joined the GOP "by default" because the Dem slot was taken.
He did do plenty of good stuff as well, but that has to be factored in with the bad stuff.
I think some of his actions seem much more conservative in hindsight, just because America as a whole has shifted a great deal leftward since the 1950s. For example, Ike's hardline immigration policy with "Operation Wetback" would never be allowed in today's P.C. climate.
I'm amused when the Bernie Sanders crowd try to co-pt Eisenhower as one of their own, like the morons on our side do with JFK. "I'm pretty much an Eisenhower Republican" say some moonbat socialists. Sure, Ike would have found transgender restrooms and Islamofacism and taxpayer funded abortion on demand just peachy, right? In their delusional world, Eisenhower would be marching along side Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and Occupy Wall Street.
The ideal president for the 50s would have been Robert Taft, IMO.
Bump
But sailors, like soldiers talked a lot. Patton was universally respected and even liked. MacArthur was not liked, but was respected.
Ike, Dad often repeated, didn't have the sense to pour p*$$ out of a boot with the arrow stamped on the heel. Dad also loathed Ike for keeping a mistress when one woman (my Mom) was good enough for Dad.
Until DJT became POTUS, it seemed to me that ALL Republicans compromised with Democrats!
MAGA! Don’t compromise!
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