Let me start off by saying that I know I’m not going to win any awards blogging about how bad of a President George W. Bush is. Instead, I thought it would be fun to point out a funny coincidence.
I want to introduce this question, “Is our 43rd President totally at fault for his actions or is in genetic?”
Here, let me explain.
Who is Franklin Pierce?
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States. He was disliked by his party so much he only served one term between 1853 and 1857. While he was considered a good looking man who had the type of personality that caused him to make many friends, he is also referred to as one of the worst presidents in history. I know people are already saying that about Bush but I’m not getting off that easy with a simple comparison like that. Let me give you a brief history lesson so that you can have a better understanding about Franklin Pierce.Like a large number of Presidents, he made decisions which were widely criticized. His popularity in the North declined quickly after he came out in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Here is a brief explanation from Wikipedia.
“The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and opened new lands for settlement, and allowed the settlers to decide whether or not to have slavery. The new Republican Party, formed in reaction against allowing slavery where it had been forbidden, emerged as the dominant force throughout the North.”
After this, his credibility continued to be damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto. Again, from Wikipedia.
“The Ostend Manifesto was a secret document written in 1854 by U.S. diplomats at Ostend, Belgium, describing a plan to acquire Cuba from Spain. The document declared that “Cuba is as necessary to the North American republic as any of its present members, and that it belongs naturally to that great family of states of which the Union is the Providential Nursery.”
The aggressively worded document, and Soulé’s advocacy of slavery, caused outrage among Northerners who felt it was a Southern attempt to extend slavery. American free-soilers, just recently stirred with the Fugitive Slave Law passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, decried the manifesto. Thus, Cuba did not become part of the United States.”
Historian David Potter concludes that the Ostend Manifesto and the Kansas-Nebraska Act were “the two great calamities of the Franklin Pierce administration. Both brought down an avalanche of public criticism.” More important says Potter, they permanently discredited Manifest Destiny and popular sovereignty.
Pierce was abandoned by his party and thus was not renominated at the 1856 Presidential Election. Pierce is the only U.S. President in history that still holds the record of the only incumbent who didn’t get his party’s nomination for a second term. After he left office his alcoholism steady increased and his marriage fell apart. His reputation was further damaged when he declared support for the Confederacy. He died in 1869 from cirrhosis.
While not exactly the same to Bush’s situation, the similaries are still there. Like Pierce, Bush’s poor decision making has caused a large part of the Republican part to step away from him. Bush, like Pierce, based on his many poor decisions, has already receive the ranking of one of the worst U.S. Presidents in history.
But wait, that isn’t enough of a link to justify this post. It goes a little deeper.
The Barbara Bush Link
Barbara Bush (her maiden name being Pierce) was the third child of the former Pauline Robinson and her husband, Marvin Pierce. If you haven’t caught on yet, Franklin Piece is an ancestor of Barbara Bush. She is a direct descendant, the great-great-granddaughter of James Pierce, Jr. who was a fourth cousin of 14th President Franklin Pierce.
Could it be that being a bad president is not only the fault of the person, but also genetic? What if George Bush’s mother was someone else, would these last 7 or so years been different? Are we doomed to have generation after generation of President’s linked to the Bush family?
*I just thought that this information would be interesting to all of you. It’s a funny coincidence that I thought was worth sharing. This post is more humorous than anything else. I’m not trying to prove that being a bad president is genetic. Again, I’m just pointing out a funny coincidence. 
Very interesting!
i’m starting to believe the theory that the free-and-democratic us of a is a nurtured myth to cover a very specific type of aristocracy where few, connected by blood-lines, have most of the money, land and also political power. scary… but makes sense
While the genetic link is interesting, you can’t say that Barbara is a “direct” descendant of Franklin Pierce. If her great, great grandfater was Franklin’s cousin of any kind it means that they have a common ancestor but are not related in a direct lineage.