I have to admit, this particular post was more difficult. Anything I read about America's 8th president seemed to emphasize the ineffectiveness of Martin Van Buren's term as president. From glancing over a summary of his presidential achievements and policies, the underlying pattern seemed to be that he was more politically minded. He seemed to make decisions based on what he thought would bring the least amount of conflict and the most amount of political support.
He was unsuccessful in a fair amount of things and events, but at least we can all read and learn. It is inevitable that America's democratically republic system will be filled with imperfect people. Nevertheless, each person who was elected president was, indeed, elected president. Besides, if everyone was successful, we wouldn't be able to tell if we were doing a very good job. I am grateful for the things we can learn from Martin van Buren's presidential term.
Perhaps the most reassuring lesson of all from this is the fact that any mistake he made hasn't "ruined" America. He was president for a time, and when his time was up, the nation moved on. This is the case for every president. Whether you think Obama, or Trump, or Bush, or the older Bush, or any other president "ruined" America, I tend to disagree (unless, of course, we are currently living in a world that would be dystopian for someone from the 19th century).
P.S.—Strangely enough, it is possible that Van Buren's presidential campaign introduced "OK/okay" into English (according to Wikipedia, this is one possible origin for "okay"). If it is the true origins, we have one huge reason to thank President Van Buren. :)
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