Eisenhower got us out of the Korean War with South Korea intact, which was the legitimate end of American military policy. He promoted the Interstate Highway System as freeways where there was not already a toll expressway up to Interstate standards, which was best for getting people off the horrible Blood Alleys. The Interstate Highway has paid for itself in reduction of highway carnage alone. Ike stayed clear of the McCarthy bandwagon which eventually imploded. He may not have been in the vanguard in promoting civil rights for Southern blacks, but he went fully with the decisions of the US Supreme Court.
I have compared Eisenhower to Obama for temperament and overall integrity... and have suggested that 56 years later, the two seem to have had similar constituencies. The curricula vitae may have been as different as they could be, and the two are in opposite Parties. But the generational cycle suggests that both are mature Reactive leaders -- chilly rationalists who respect legal formalities, precedent, and protocol. Obama will fall short of Eisenhower for one thing: the difference between their successors. Donald Trump is no Jack Kennedy; Trump will be compared in history to three much-reviled Roman Emperors: Caligula, Nero, and Commodus. He can consider himself fortunate that we Americans simply do not have coups.
I have compared Eisenhower to Obama for temperament and overall integrity... and have suggested that 56 years later, the two seem to have had similar constituencies. The curricula vitae may have been as different as they could be, and the two are in opposite Parties. But the generational cycle suggests that both are mature Reactive leaders -- chilly rationalists who respect legal formalities, precedent, and protocol. Obama will fall short of Eisenhower for one thing: the difference between their successors. Donald Trump is no Jack Kennedy; Trump will be compared in history to three much-reviled Roman Emperors: Caligula, Nero, and Commodus. He can consider himself fortunate that we Americans simply do not have coups.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.