The worst GOP president

I am a lifelong Democrat who has admired many Republican presidents. The party got off to a great start by electing Abraham Lincoln, who was the best president.

After Lincoln, there were a series of not-so-stellar Republicans until the turn of the century and the election of Theodore Roosevelt. After Roosevelt, the country was plagued with another series of the sub-par — Calvin Coolidge, Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover — until Dwight D. Eisenhower. I liked Ike.

Since then, we have elected Republicans who have seldom risen above mediocrity: Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and both Bushes, with Gerald Ford outstanding by comparison. Having lived through Nixon, it was my rational belief that the country could never elect anyone worse, then along came George W. Bush.

Again, I thought there couldn’t be any worse, and now we have Donald Trump, who makes me long for the likes of Nixon and “W.” Despite their numerous faults, neither was as coarse or crass as our current maligner-in-chief. Just his presence in the Oval Office has lowered the status of the White House to an outhouse.

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 7:05 PM with the headline "The worst GOP president."