"misfortune and disgrace"

"The post of President is always forced on some particularly noxious and unpopular citizen.  To be elected President is the greatest misfortune and disgrace that can befall an Islander.  The humiliations and ignominy are such that few Presidents live out their full term of office, usually dying of a broken spirit after a year or two.  The Expeditor had once been President and served the full five years of his term.  Subsequently he changed his name and underwent plastic surgery, to blot out, as far as possible, the memory of his disgrace."

-- William Burroughs, Naked Lunch