The Curse of Twelve

  Since 1860, every president elected at the beginning of a 12-year cycle in American politics has been cursed by calamity, ranging from losing the popular vote, scandal, corruption and economic crises to death in office, either from natural causes or from assassination.
   Oddly, all but three of the thirteen men elected during these cycle years were Republicans, but even the three Democrats were plagued by the Curse of Twelve.
   An exception to all this was Dwight D. Eisenhower. However, he too suffered from an economic downturn, McCarthyism and a nationwide fear of Communism. Moreover, he had Richard Nixon as a vice president.
   Here's a list of the 12-year cycle and its victims:

1860 -- Abraham Lincoln, Republican, assassinated.
1872 -- Ulysses S. Grant, Republican, scandal and corruption
1884 -- Grover Cleveland, Democrat, monetary scandal, economic depression, lost re-election.
1896 -- William McKinley, Republican, assassinated.
1908 -- William Howard Taft, Republican, lost re-election when challenged by Theodore Roosevelt, his own vice president.
1920 -- Warren G. Harding, Republican, corruption, the Teapot Dome scandal, onset of the Great Depression.
1932 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat, plagued by the Great Depression and the start of World War 2.
1944 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat, died in office 12 years after first election.
1956 -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican, plagued by an economic slide and a nationwide, often irrational fear of a Communist menace.
1968 -- Richard Nixon, Republican, scandal, resigned under threat of impeachment.
1992 -- Bill Clinton, Democrat, impeached, but not convicted.
2004 -- George W. Bush, Republican, lost the popular vote, saw the start of the Great Recession.
2016 -- Donald J. Trump, Republican, lost the popular vote, presided over the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

   As noted in this space previously, all these examples may be just coincidences.
   Then again, maybe not.
   Or as Pug Mahoney's grandmother might say, "They're like leprechauns. I don't believe in them at all. But they're there, all the same."