27 Older Americans Shared The Ways The Country Has Changed Through Multiple Presidents

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“I was in high school when John Kennedy was shot. I grew up on a farm in Minnesota, and my family was strongly Republican. My first vote was for President Nixon, and I watched the Senate hearings in disbelief. I had little experience with Black Americans, but I was shocked by the violence against them during the Civil Rights Movement. I swallowed the trickle-down theory of Ronald Reagan and was scandalized by Bill Clinton’s taking advantage of a young Monica Lewinsky. I was incensed when Bush sent our National Guard to fight against Saddam Hussein, as that was not what they had signed up to fight.”

“About this time, I realized that the trickle-down theory was working in reverse and that it appeared that the main job of our elected officials was to make enough money to pay for their next election. I watched the people in Louisiana, where I had moved in 1991, suffer under a Republican governor (Bobby Jindal) with presidential aspirations.

While I had considered myself an independent, I started identifying more strongly with the Democratic Party. I felt the joy of Obama’s presidency. I think he was the best of the presidents that I have seen. I think Biden did a masterful job of bringing our country back from the first Trump administration. I’m going on 78 years old, and I do not expect I will live long enough to see our nation recover from the second Trump term. He will destroy our economy, has destroyed our reputation, and I fear unless the Republican party grows a spine, he will destroy our government.”

—Anonymous