Obey Your Government???

[Dave in Waco]

Politics should be an honor, not a career. Former presidents should go back to work like the rest of us after having the honor to serve the nation as presidents! Protesting is patriotic in my book.

A lot of times they are called back into services as special envoys or ambassadors by the current President. And many past Presidents did. It's only within the last 60 years they started going on book and lecture tours. Thurman was the one who started the long line of Presidents writing books afterward. Of course, Thurman did it because when he left office he had no pension and wasn't a rich man to begin with. So he had no other income when he went back to private life and he refused to be on a corporate payroll just for being a former President. A couple other quick facts: first that Thurman was our 33rd President and also a 33 degree Mason. Second, Thurman had the lowest approval rating when leaving office at 22%, but he is always ranked no less then 9th among our greatest Presidents and as high as 5th. He was also the last President to be eligible to run for a 3rd term, which like George Washington, he refused.

 

[cemab4y]

When Harry Truman left the Presidency, he had only his Army pension of about $150 per month. The congress decided to award pensions to ex-presidents beginning with Dwight Eisenhower. HST completed the final term of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which ended in 1949. HST ran for president only once, in 1948.