Quote:
Originally posted by AXO Alum
I believe this is the last time a President will ever get such a farewell. I don't think Carter, Bush, certainly not Clinton, and GWB would deserve it considering that all did more to divide the country rather than unite it.
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I truly hope you're wrong. I would hope that when it comes to the death of a (former) president, the powers that be would put partisanship aside. State funerals should not be predicated on what a president accomplished but on the solitary fact that he (or she someday) served this country in the office president. Period. And anyone who has served in that very demanding and difficult office, unless he was removed from office or resigned in disgrace, deserves respect, some gratitude, and an appropriate burial.
Not that accompishments should be left out of the picture -- this is a time to remember and celebrate them. But making decisions based on criteria like who divided/united the country can be so subjective. I can assure you that there were many, many people in the 80's who would have rejected the idea that Reagan united the country and who would still reject that idea. Right or wrong? I don't know. And Carter may not have been the most effective president we've ever had, but, as someone who has managed to use his post-presidential status to work for the good of many and not for his own self-aggrandizement, he has to rank as one the best
former presidents we've ever had.
You can take just about any president and you will find those who think he is the Messiah and those who think he is the Antichrist. Neither is true -- they're people who do some good and some not so good, some we agree with and some we don't.
I hate to see us becoming a country where simple respect for the president takes a back seat to partisanship.
[/soapbox]