Would JD Vance be up?
I recall thinking Gerald Ford was not smart enough to be president. He was a more accomplished scholar (and athlete) than I would ever be. He was likely my intellectual equal or even looked down. I just thought that presidents should be smarter than me. He wasn't a bad guy. The GOP wasn't yet a bad party. Ford would be a low point for capable presidents, I thought.
Nope. Reagan had little idea about what he was doing or how things work. That will be the low point for GOPs, I thought although I was becoming aware of the construction of the hate engine. Reagan meant well. I don't think even Nixon ever had a thought of undermining the republic. He just abused power.
Next, the hopeful blip among the GOPs. GHW Bush. He did many things I didn't like, and he was the old school face of the new school (hate) GOP. We leave the low part of the wave where Nixon defined the depths. Certainly a smart guy was in charge who cared about the republic. That was so common, that a person never thought about naming that as a qualification. Of course there can be corruption and power/money grabs, buy no basic desire to fuck up the country.
But no.
W Bush is an ambulatory moron with name brand recognition. The Iraq invasion and all the lies used to justify is the worst policy decision of my adult lifetime. At least there was a publicly recognized pretense for the disaster of Viet Nam: fight communism. It was stupid, but it was something real. Iraq...don't get me started. So W will be the dumbest worst GOP president in my memory.
Nope. I don't expect things to go up. I just hope they do. A Republican president has become, by definition, a disaster in the making.