by Mary Wakefield Buxton –
URBANNA —
Remember President Harry S. Truman? Yes, a few of us may remember the 1940s and the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the close of World War II elevating Vice President Truman and his solid Midwestern values into the White House.
Many have had doubts about whether he should have approved using atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to finally end World War II against Japan. But I’m inclined to believe it was necessary to finally shock their obsessive “kamikaze culture” that would have urged soldiers to have fought until death. Still, the horror of massive innocent citizen deaths that our two atomic bombs caused is still of concern.
The other thing I remember about President Truman was his no nonsense approach to accepting responsibility for any decisions he made. “The buck stops here” as he so famously said was simple truth. Any U.S. president and commander in chief is responsible for all things that happen on his or her watch. Accepting that responsibility is a sign of a mature leader that does not try to pass on blame to others, a trait sorely missing in too many of our sorry leaders today.
Senior citizens like myself have witnessed many presidents in the years since Truman — Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, Trump and now Biden.
Whew! How we managed to survive all those politicians and their occasional grave mistakes in office is truly amazing. Perhaps there is some truth to the infamous statement attributed to Otto von Bismarck, “God has a special providence for fools, drunkards and the United States of America.”
I suppose if you are a partisan, you may feel obliged to defend all events and decisions when your party is in power. Not me. I’m not a believer. Bad decisions, poor judgment, weak leadership are part, unfortunately, of the presidency. I think we should rise above party affiliation and call it as we see it.
Both parties have their share of such poor administrations. But have you noticed some politicians accept responsibility for the problems they deal with and other politicians blame others for any bad outcomes? As a rule usually a sitting president with such immature tendencies will blame the previous administration.
Which is my universal complaint about our presidents. It seems to me since Truman’s administration we have had mighty few presidents that have had such maturity, character or stature that they can say when things are mucked up that … “The buck stops here.”
It’s not only disappointing to the public that must tolerate its leader and commander in chief no matter which political party is in power; it’s a downright sad reflection of American society.
Think of the blamers we have had to put up with since Truman’s time. Why, almost every president since that time with possibly a few exceptions has blamed the previous administration for at least one of the problems they have encountered. This only proves to blame is human.
Nonetheless, President Biden has horrified Americans with the botched job he and his administration caused in the planned departure of Afghanistan. He has proved himself to be incompetent and incapable of serving this country as president and commander in chief. The catastrophe in Afghanistan has been horrible to witness. The number of Americans and Afghani left behind to fend for themselves is abominable. That Biden could cast the finger of blame on anyone for this disaster is outrageous and totally unacceptable.
He should resign.
In England where there still is a shred of honor left in politicians, he would do so. But in America, politicians rarely resign. They tough it out hoping the memory of their shame and incompetence will soon melt away and in time the people will forget. They go day by day praying some other catastrophe will come along taking attention away from their failures. If only they hang on to the power just one more day.
Both political parties have to do a better job nominating candidates. It was obvious to me just watching Biden falter in action and speech during the campaign that he was not alert enough to serve as president. Yet the other choice of the egomaniac Trump also presented a challenge.
Secondly, voters need to do a better job in selecting presidents. The world is a dangerous place. Enemies plot to bring us down. Our nation’s security, our very lives, depends on us electing leaders that can do the job.
Or, if our parties and citizens can’t do a better job nominating and electing competent leaders, we have no other choice than to hope and pray Bismarck’s statement was right … “God has a special providence for fools, drunkards and the United States of America.”
© 2021.
