Thinking Citizen Blog — “Americans Tend to Have A Soft Spot For Our Former Presidents” (Bret Stephens, NYT)

John Muresianu
5 min readJan 19, 2025

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Thinking Citizen Blog — Sunday is Political Process Reform, Campaign Strategy, and Candidate Selection Day

Today’s Topic: “Americans Tend to Have A Soft Spot For Our Former Presidents” (Bret Stephens, NYT)

Will Biden be remembered primarily for the positives — “NATO enlargement, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, defending Ukraine and Israel, strengthening alliances in the Pacific” or the negatives “ the illusions that the Taliban would not immediately takeover Afghanistan, that the surge in 2021 migration was seasonal, and that inflation was transitory? Will he be primarily remembered for the reluctance to pull out of the presidential race and the deception regarding his own failing health?

Today, excerpts from President Biden’s Farewell Address.

Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

THE GAZA CEASEFIRE — how will history look on this deal? how will credit or blame be apportioned?

1. “After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration — by my administration, a ceasefire and a hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas, the elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year.”

2. “The plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration.”

3. “That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed because that’s how it should be working together as Americans.”

THE LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS — Part One — what would you rank first? second? third?

1. “Instead of losing their jobs to an economic crisis that we inherited, millions of Americans now have the dignity of work: millions of entrepreneurs and companies creating new businesses and industries, hiring American workers, using American products.”

2. “And together, we’ve launched a new era of American possibilities — one of the greatest modernizations of infrastructure in our entire history, from new roads, bridges, clean water, affordable high-speed internet for every American.”

3. “We invented the semiconductor — smaller than the tip of my little finger. And now it’s bringing those chip factories and those jobs back to America where they belong, creating thousands of jobs.”

NB: “Finally giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for millions of seniors. And finally doing something to protect our children and our families by passing the most significant gun safety law in 30 years and bringing violent crime to a 50-year low.”

THE LIST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS — Part Two — did he unite the country or divide it? Is that the right question? If not, what is?

1. “At home we’ve created nearly 17 million jobs — more than any other administration in a single term.”

2. “More people have health care than ever before.”

3. “And overseas, we’ve strengthened NATO. Ukraine is still free. And we’ve pulled ahead of our competition with China. And so much more.”

THE WARNINGS — echoing Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address of 1961

1. “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

2. “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power.”

3 . “The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. “The truth is smothered by lies gold for power and for profit.”

COUNTER POINT — DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES) — The truth about billionaires “There is an oligarchy, but it’s completely bipartisan. Most billionaires in this country are Democrats who go to speak at Aspen every year. I think I know something about billionaires.. but like Hollywood, New York, San Francisco, there are Democratic places. The Democratic Party has half the country, but about 75% of the GDP of this country. So there is a Democratic oligarchy and a Republican oligarchy. And so to say it’s all because of Elon Musk, well, that’s part of it. But there are a lot of billionaires on the Democratic side.”

Remarks by President Biden in a Farewell Address to the Nation | The White House

Opinion | The Biden Presidency: Four Illusions, Four Deceptions

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/brooks-and-capehart-on-bidens-legacy-and-what-to-expect-from-trumps-2nd-term

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (1961)

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?

LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

ATTACHMENTS BELOW:

#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).

#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)

#3 Israel-Palestine Handout

NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)

YOUR TURN

Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to political process or campaign strategy or 2020 candidate selection or anything else for that matter.

This is your chance to make someone else’s day or change their thinking. Or to consolidate in your own memory something worth remembering that might otherwise be lost. Or to clarify or deepen your own understanding of something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.

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John Muresianu
John Muresianu

Written by John Muresianu

Passionate about education, thinking citizenship, art, and passing bits on of wisdom of a long lifetime.

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