Retention

Last week we heard about Gerald Ford and how his pardon of Nixon was an effort to heal the nation (for definition see presidential election 2000) which I guess makes sense in an invading-Iraq-for-weapons-of mass-destruction kind of way if you want to discount the fact that his pardon likely had more disastrous ramifications than Watergate itself (see Administrations Reagan, Bush I, Bush Miserable Fuck II) but that's beside the point.

Today, were he still alive, would have been Richard Nixon's 94th birthday. While he will always be remembered for his little 'I'm not a crook' fiasco with regard to his part in Watergate, he also started arms control agreements with the boogie man of the times, the Soviet Union, and greatly improved our relations with China so we now have pandas and cheap clothing (and by cheap, I mean inexpensive AND shoddy). He established the EPA, expanded Social Security and other state welfare programs as well as, get this, over 4 decades ago, tried to create a national health insurance system.[emphasis mine]

Does this sound like a Republican? It would seem the party retained all of his bad qualities (paranoia, secrecy, deception, etc.) while burying all of his positive attributes. I read somewhere that Bush, the son, was Nixon without a brain - I think there's more to it than that but it pains me to say that after this administration we sure could use a man like Herbert Hoover Richard Nixon, again.


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