Every four years for the past 250 years American voters gather together to choose and ratify two applicants for the most exclusive membership club in the world, the US Presidents Club. We never select a single individual. Each time, following the Wisdom of our Founders in 1788, we vote for two national constitutional officers, a President and Vice President to run the Executive, guard our individual and collective liberties, and do what is needed to ensure peace and tranquility in our land.
By election, we accept just two new applicants every four years. Candidates apply for the job as a governing team. There is a primary membership position, and a second in command membership, as support and backup in case of national crisis (disability or death of the current first member). We allow promotion from the second position in national constitutional office to the first in subsequent elections, but only for a maximum of 8 years or two terms (since 1947).
In the past 50 years, the American Electoral system performed remarkably well, the envy of freedom loving people around the world, until 2020.
During those 50 years, there were 12 Presidential Club Membership elections, on schedule as required. There were eight different Presidents elected; four were Democrats, and four Republicans. In total, there were also eight different Vice- Presidents elected, again four were Democrats, and four Republicans.
See the summary chart below:
Allowing for double terms, and voter-sanctioned promotions from Vice-President to President, there have been a grand total of 14 separate individuals chosen for national constitutional office by American voters in the 50 years since 1976.
This club membership, while the most exclusive, has been remarkably balanced over the last five decades from among our two national political parties: 7 Republicans and 7 Democrats. Of those 14 special elected members, three have died (Mondale, Reagan, and GHW Bush) since they were voted in. Eleven of these men and women are still alive in 2024.
Taken together, the current US Presidents Club has 96 years of cumulative national executive office governing experience. Apart from Trump, there are exactly 10 living Americans with hard-won experience and direct personal knowledge of the unrelenting demands of the job, based on their membership in this most exclusive group.
They include four Republicans (GW Bush, Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney, and Mike Pence), and six Democrats (Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris). Again, a close balance. Apart from Trump, today there are five living President Members (Carter, Clinton, GW Bush, Obama, and Biden), and five living Vice-President members (Quayle, Gore, Cheney, Pence, and Harris).
These 10 club members represent our nation’s entire direct living memory of the personal weight and gravity of the Office of President, the hazards and powers of national constitutional office, and the scope and restraint of proper conduct to preserve the rule of law and safeguard our individual rights.
Their policies, politics, and philosophies span the range of America’s wide political landscape from staunchly conservative to progressively liberal. They have led the country through wars and regional conflicts, times of economic growth and recession, political and personal scandals, diplomatic negotiations and foreign entanglements, and dozens of health crises here and abroad.
However, in 2024, they have each come together to declare a stark message to all of America’s voters in the final months before this year’s election.
Their message is unambiguous.
Donald Trump is unfit to be returned to active membership as President. His return to power would pose a grave risk to America’s future national security, our economic prosperity, the nation’s health, and our individual freedoms and civil rights.
All ten agree on this point. There are no dissenters. Donald Trump stands alone and far outside the perimeter of acceptable governing conduct for President of the United States under the Constitution. He must not be allowed back in office to exact revenge and wreak havoc on our country.
Imagine, Jimmy Carter and Mike Pence agree about 2024. George Bush and Al Gore share the same view. Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are together on this warning call to voters.
When was the last time anyone saw such an overwhelming US Presidents Club call to action against a grave political danger?
Never in 50 years. Perhaps the closest parallel in American political history in the last 100 years would be FDR’s call on Congress for a Declaration of State of War with Japan on December 8, 1941. The vote in favor was 82-0 in the e Senate, and 388 – 0 in the US House.
One holdout against an overwhelming national consensus to protect and defend America from harm. She was Jeanette Rankin, a Montana Republican who refused pleas from her Republican House colleagues to at least abstain for the nation’s good, but refused to yield. Three days later she abstained when the declaration of war against Germany and Italy was passed. She did not run for re-election in 1942 and never served again in Congress.
Every once in a great while, the adverse consequences of a decision are so great, it is necessary to put Country over Party with your vote.
So it is in 2024.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vice_presidents_of_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_declaration_of_war_on_Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Rankin
https://www.amazon.com/Presidents-Club-Inside-Exclusive-Fraternity/dp/1439127727