Dwight David Eisenhower's nickname was "Ike". As in, "I like Ike". I grew up under his administration which was chiefly known for lots of golf played by the Commander in Chief and a warning against the military industrial complex. Other than that, Ike was not an able politician. Having been an outstanding General did not prepare him for the total lack of cohesiveness among branches of Legislative partisans. They couldn't take an "order".
The culture shock, as I recall, of going from an old white guy to a handsome 40 year old with a charismatic wife was a shot of adrenaline to the Youth Culture in America. JFK and Jackie changed the world chiefly through the cult of cool and the illusion of the "Best and the Brightest".
The Bay of Pigs fiasco made Kennedy look weak and feckless so the face-off over Russian installations of ballistic nuclear missles became necessary to redeem his standing.
With the bullet in Dallas putting an end to Camelot the conniving liar L.B.J. ruined the world and turned the U.S. into Hawks vs Doves, Old vs Young and we've never recovered from his feckless ruinations.
If you are under 40 you've only known hatred against George W. Bush as an example of polarization in the electorate. But, after L.B.J.'s Viet Nam escalations it was inevitable that a canny Dick Nixon would be the result of the backlash on Democrats.
L.B.J. pushed Civil Rights legislation to the max and made it impossible for American to ever unite again because of Robert McNamara's prosecution of the war. Democrats and Republicans were never more divided or vicious to each other after L.B.J.
Tricky Dick Nixon was a haunted intellectual reared as a Quaker and just as duplicitous as any JW elder. He put the cork in the bottle when it came to public respect for the office of President.
This was my lifetime. It was soooooo different before 1962.
Today, people spout canned talking points and use red herrings of ageism and racism to barge through the pretense of having a legitimate idea.
The problem with our world isn't race or how old you are. The problem is there are no core values based on anything other than emotional claptrap
and what use to be called intellectual is now merely pretension and ideology.
It is better to be cool than smart, alas!
Today's party leaders wouldn't know a legitimate idea or argument if it landed on their roof at midnight.
The default to logic and reason is mere finger pointing and ad hominem rhetoric disguised as debate.
I'm surprised anybody can stand anything even vaguely reeking of politics or sociology. They are counterfeit "sciences" and illegitimate launching pads for neuroses dressed up to look like ethical concerns.
Whew