Can we, who man the ship of state, deny it is somewhat out of control?

The “Rest is History” chaps made the observation that even as Englishmen our lives are punctuated by the Presidents of the United States. 

My first memory of the office and its impact on our lives was the evening of 22nd November 1963 when my Dad returned late home from his travels around Southern England to announce to my Mum, my brother and I that “They have shot Kennedy”. The memory has stuck as my mother was visibly shocked and effected by the news, she cried. The context and the conspiracy later became common currency during the latter years of the 60’s as I became more aware than my confused seven year old version of what had happened.

My parents had a soft spot for all things American and we had a subscription to Life magazine for most of my teenage years so I had perhaps more exposure to the images that defined the end of the 1960’s and 1970’s than many in a rural market town in Somerset.  I then further refined my image of the USA, if somewhat a distorted view,  through the music and literature emanating from the other side of the Atlantic.  Lyndon Johnson, regardless of his admirable good works for civil rights was never engrained in my memory, Ford neither. Nixon however was a different animal. His name appeared in songs and he was cast in his role as the pantomime villain, anti-drug, anti-fun and as it turned out anti-anything that got in the way of his sense of self importance, including legal niceties. I always thought it was ridiculous for a man that had relatively easily won his re-election to have it all fall apart in his hands through hubris and just being too tricky for his own good. The Nixon masks became a Hollywood prop for bank robbers and his years of chaotic involvement in Vietnam and Cambodia typified the decline of America as Home of Brave and Land of the Free.

Carter came and went again 4 years later at a time when English politics was divisive and the country was under the control and metaphorical heel of the Iron Lady. That was an ugly time that included a small war in the South Atlantic, the wholesale destruction of the mining and steel industry and paved the way for the housing crisis of today by basically selling off the country’s stock of affordable housing. As an antagonistic leadership figure Thatcher inspired more songs of anger than anyone else except maybe her buddy in arms Ronald Reagan. I was aware of Rayguns from his period as Governor of California and that became just a dry run for the policies that defined his presidency. A deeply religious man, Reagan grew up a democrat and was a fan of FDR. He had firm opinions on everything although he was not a strong student, his worldview was based on sketchy sources, for example he was an avid reader of the Reader’s Digest for most of his life . So you have a committed and passionate man in the highest office of the land, he wrote all his own speeches, he said what he believed. Underlying that effort to lead the world to a better place was not the greatest intellect and his reputation, other than to the Republican right who to this day worship the guy, was of a man that was guided by other people’s input. Which is great trait to have if you are smart enough to work out what the agenda of everyone is and what is actually best for the common weal rather than self interest of individual sectors. It leads to bad outcomes when you do not have those tools, like Dutch Reagan and later, Dubya. But like I said he is lionized still by the right-thinking older white men who sit in country clubs and board rooms of America, the same guys who when I would meet them would always confide to me, conspiratorially, how much they admired Margaret Thatcher, always a winning argument with me, proof if proof was needed I was talking to an idiot. Bonzo did indeed go to Bitburg but when I arrived in the US to live, in 1989, his Vice President, George H.W. Bush was president. The last President who served in the Second World War, the last professional politician to hold the role in many ways until Biden popped back up in 2020. 

Bush, as he was known then, H.W. or Bush Senior as we were forced to distinguish him from his gurning child, had been head of the CIA and held other positions including the Chair of the RNC so was deeply stained with Republican actions like reducing taxes on the rich, undoing climate legislation, support of foreign dictators if of commercial interest to the US including supporting coups against democratically elected governments if they were of the wrong hew. So your basic stand up guy for most Republicans. Generally a personality vacuum and whose only quirks were those typical of a rich man sent off to elite boarding school, he hated broccoli and summered in a family compound in Maine. Ironically I look back on him now as ultimately a misguided but well meaning politician but then again Atila the Hun takes on positive characteristics compared to the antics of McConnell, Trump and the current crop of Republicans.

I was living in the Bay Area when Bush went to war with Desert Storm, the last time the US won in a Hollywood way of the hero. It was righteous in the way that defending one oil exploiting despotic regime from a larger oil exploiting despotic regime can be and everyone went home quickly, feeling quite good about themselves.

Then we had Clinton and the promise of youth, vigor, an outsider shaking up sleepy Washington. The kindest thing to say is that it started well, he did some good works and then he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and  became a human pretzel pretending that getting a blowie, often while on the phone to Newt Gingrich, was not defined as sexual relations.

Bill said the right things, passed positive legislation and generally oversaw 8 years of economic growth and prosperity for most people living in the US. He tried to be cool appearing on talk shows, Arsenio Hall had him playing the sax, both wearing cartoon-like shoulder padded jackets. He was the first baby-boomer president and embodied all of the promise and jeopardy of my generation. Sadly his longest lasting gift to us was Hilary Clinton, the jilted wife, the Vice President and President in waiting who let the Mango Mussolini in through the door.

After Bill or maybe because of Bill the Republicans went from being self-interested but generally focused on American values and the general good, even if only their perspective of that, to being the rabid, selfish and do anything to fuck up the Democrats party. Gingrich started the effort and cemented for the Republicans the support of Murdoch’s Fox News, Talk Radio’s Rush Limbaugh and the Evangelical Church which has continued ever since in an alliance of the damned.

Bills’ Veep, mild-mannered Clark Kent Al Gore, looked a shoe in but his stiffness and general lack of personality was the wrong contrast to man of the people George W. Bush. When the election swung in the balance in Florida Al turned up with a knife to a gun fight and we spent 8 years under Dubya. After he and the neocons who surrounded him blew the one opportunity to harness global grief and support for the US after the 9-11 attacks and instead went all “Mission Accomplished” I was so upset by the prospect of this obviously stupid man in the White House being so blindly supported by many of our friends in San Luis Obispo that that I went back to England for 4 years. Bush, led by the nose by Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Condoleezza Rice, decided to play Sheriff to the whole of the Middle East and the era of long term war Afganistan and Iraq began. 

I returned to a brighter America led by a dynamic new President bringing hope. Sadly Obama’s first task was to try and unpick the mess of the 2009 financial crisis that was a product of 8 years of untrammeled and increasingly unregulated financial gearing by Wall Street on Bush’s watch, although some of the changes started thanks to Clinton’s changes to the banking rules. Obama had a choice but for all of his obvious charisma, charm and intellect he was guided by the experts. The experts, who themselves had benefited and encouraged the gang buster growth of financial products, chose supporting their friends on Wall Street and keeping the money machine going rather than bail out the millions of Americans who had been sold the loans and saw their houses and their life savings evaporate. Sure there was a token sacrificial lamb in Lehman Brothers, but everyone who worked at Lehman was back in another job within months, doing the same soft shoe shuffle with other people’s pensions.

Obama then tried to deliver universal healthcare to a country which to this day has the most expensive medical care system, in GDP terms, globally yet with the health outcomes of the third world. He almost got it done but went grey trying.

Most people liked Michele and Barack and their kids and he was a great President in terms of saying the right things, trying to act like a grown up, be inspirational. He was frustrated at every turn by McConnell and the Republican machine who would rather cut the nose off of America’s face to spite the efforts of the Democrats. Mitch didn’t realize that his political poisoning of the wells and salting the fields would be long term and his reward for his efforts was not some good old reliable Republican like Mitt Romney but his worst nightmare, a  opportunistic complete charlatan dressed up in the Stars and Stripes and holding a bible upside down.

So we went from Hollywood smiles and charm to face paint, oversized ties and bluster. People tracking Drumpf’s lies in office gave up as it was hundreds per week. This wasn’t political theater this was just grifting on a national scale, the thin skinned boy-man surrounded himself with only the best, or at least the best for that week or the best at telling him what he needed to hear. And finally when even the jaded and tired Republicans realized that it was just not worth 4 more years of chaos and kissing up to every despot around the globe he got voted out. Like the child he is he could not accept the rejection and had a tantrum that continues to this day.

So here I am with my 11th President that has been a presence, even if in the background of my life. He is old school and is familiar as he played VP for Clinton for 8 years and is a professional pol. He is not even technically a boomer as he was born in 1942. However every day I am happy he is still breathing and holding it together, mostly, ignoring the odd gaff or leaving the stage by the wrong door. I cannot imagine what life would have looked like for anyone in Europe with Drumpf buddying up to his benefactor Putin when the Special Operation started in Ukraine last year. I hope he is still there come 2025 and not someone like De Santis or Cruz or Rubio. Politics used to be a place where people went to make a difference, where the impassioned or true believers of one creed or another went to spread the word and do good works. It seems now to have become a place where only the truly self serving can prosper as it has become free from overall belief or conviction and just doing whatever will get you elected, look no further than Liz Truss for the ne plus ultra of acting your way into the top job.

The one inspiration continues to be Vlodimir Zelinsky, a man of immense personal strength of character who fights everyday for his people. A man who has no real need for political games as his life and of those around him are on the line. Many other politicians pale in comparison to him but hopefully he can inspire some other younger and more committed people around the world to enter politics for the reasons of doing good for one’s fellow man. It seems a quaint concept in the era of micro-targeting on Facebook, Instagram likes and focus-groups but I live in hope.

The following playlist was inspired or mentions the numerous captains of the ship of state eulogized, or not, above: White House Blues