Precedence

 My first presidential memory is also one of my first memories. I remember my parents gathering with relatives to watch the funeral of John F. Kennedy. I remember the dark basement, and the reflection from the television on the tiles of the floor. 

Lyndon Johnson was a caricature whom I learned to blame for the war in Vietnam. A big saggy fellow with a Texas drawl and a penchant for abusing his basset hounds. How could I have known that LBJ was a saint compared to the guy who came after him?

Richard Nixon was my entrée into politics as a blood sport. Anyone who found it necessary to sit in front of a national television audience and announce that they were not, in fact, a crook must be the biggest crook of them all. 

Then there was the asterisk that was Gerald Ford. I remember the Whip Inflation Now buttons and his earnest attempt at bringing our nation back from the brink, but mostly I will remember Chevy Chase tumbling all over a stage in New York City. And his wife made it okay to go to rehab. 

The nicest person to ever be President of the United States was Jimmy Carter. The peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia was my first rooting interest in an election. He is also the reason I discovered that Playboy magazine had interviews. 

Ronald Reagan was an actor who was really good at acting like a president. Hindsight has given me the perspective of seeing him as a public servant as much as he was a right-wing zealot. He's also the guy who tried to make us all believe in trickle-down economics. Don't believe it. Not now. Not ever. 

Next up was the faint echo of his former boss, Kennebunkport's own George H.W. Bush. Whatever charisma was left in the Republican's tank couldn't outlast the time George threw up in the lap of the Japanese Prime Minister. 

Which made room for the lusty Democrat William Jefferson Clinton. This was the first guy I ever voted for, after sneering at "the process" for so many years before. It was cool that they had Fleetwood Mac play for them, but not so cool that he was harassing his interns. 

My wife would like to believe that George W. Bush was just a bad dream she had after going to bed on election night and waking up to the news. Suddenly, his dad didn't look like such a zero. At least he wasn't a war criminal. 

Barack Obama was the first president that I felt might actually change things. I put a lot of hope in his administration. All that hope didn't bring about as much change as I had hoped, but the residue makes me believe that it is still possible. 

But not if someone like Donald Trump can win an election in these United States. The former game show host showed up as damaged merchandise and proceeded to make me doubt the future of our great republic. 

That's why Joe Biden was such a relief. The virtual antithesis of the mob boss who soiled the office before him. Still waiting for that hope and change, but I will currently settle for another four years of fending off MAGAts