The royal road to reelection

To the Editor:

Something dawned on me recently. From WWII to Biden, there have been 13 presidents. Twelve of them ran for reelection, and all but four were successful.

What did the winners have in common? Either they started a war, or continued one, and all spoke in support of war making. Truman and Eisenhower, Korea. Johnson and Nixon, Vietnam. Reagan, Grenada and Central America. Clinton, Kosovo. Baby Bush and Obama, Afghanistan and Iraq (Obama added Libya as a bonus). Johnson became president when Kennedy was murdered, and won election to a term of his own in 1964 with Cold War rhetoric. He declined to run for reelection in 1968, essentially his third term, due to growing opposition to the disastrous Vietnam War (for which my generation can take some credit).

And what of the “losers” who failed to gain reelection? They are Ford, Carter, Papa Bush and Trump. What did these four have in common? None started wars and all opposed them. Papa Bush was drawn into military action to expel Iraq from Kuwait, but declined to continue the invasion of Iraq, something for which he was criticized. Trump negotiated a treaty with the Taliban.

So it looks like the royal road to reelection is being a warmonger, and the “kiss of death” is to be in favor of peace. This does not speak well of the American electorate.

To be elected, candidates should commit to and work toward: 1. peace not war, 2. climate crisis mitigation, and 3. elimination of nuclear weapons. Successful candidates must check these boxes. Actually, I believe making these commitments should be a requirement to run, but I don't want to sound radical.

Phil Nichols

Sonora