by Mike
One thing that should perturb anyone beyond belief is revisionist history. Especially when it tarnishes the truth with one broad swipe ignoring small but very revealing facts.
As for now President Obama is engaged in a four front war, Iraq, Afghanistan, Health Care reform, and Fox News, it is the last that has drawn him, as of late, a great deal of criticisms and comparisons to Richard M. Nixon.
This is largely due to the fact that Nixon in his paranoid and manic fashion kept an infamous enemies list of which many journalists and even media organizations were members. Not too mention the strange and almost eerie resemblance between Nixon’s boycott of the Washington Post and New York Times and Obama’s ostracizing Fox News.
Likewise, there is a great deal of difference which may tend to emphasize the divide in personalities between these two men.
The History Place-(May 4, 1970)At Kent State University in Ohio, National Guardsmen shoot and kill four student protesters and wound nine.
In response to the killings, over 400 colleges and universities across America shut down. In Washington, nearly 100,000 protesters surround various government buildings including the White House and historical monuments. On an impulse, President Nixon exits the White House and pays a late night surprise visit to the Lincoln Memorial and chats with young protesters.
Nixon on a whim walked through and spoke with the hippies and students about their grievances, listened to their thoughts, and even according to some accounts participated in healthy debate with them. All of this was capricious and completely impromptu. From what we can see of President Obama’s personality projection to the American people you are left to assume that he might hover over the crowd in an almost divine way. Dictating their thoughts to them about how to “feel.”
For now though, Nixon will remain the big bad boogie man for the Right to distance themselves from and for the Left to sling mud upon. The real shame is the historical relevance that Nixon’s positives represent are otherwise lost because it is fashionable to ignore them.
Jason
Mike
10 responses so far ↓
Jason // October 24, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Mike, I liked it!
Mike // October 24, 2009 at 9:09 pm
The man for all of his problems and as you already know was far too complex to be ignored. Painting him as some kind of monster or political criminal undercuts the lessons we can learn from his policies.
For instance I actually wonder how many people are aware that it was Nixon who was one of the first Presidents of the 20th Century who attempted to revive Federalism.
theCL // October 25, 2009 at 11:11 pm
He also severed the last tie our dollar had to gold (look at an inflation chart since), enacted price controls, and claimed “we’re all Keynesians now.”
You guys know how I feel about the tyrant Obama, and the media comparisons to Nixon are indeed stupid. But Tricky Dick was no friend of liberty.
Mike // October 26, 2009 at 6:05 am
CL, you are absolutely correct about Nixon with Brenton Woods II, price and wage controls (90-days worth.), except his statement was, “I am now a Keynesian in economics.”
Believe it or not the quote you are mentioning was actually from Milton Friedman when he said, “In one sense, we are all Keynesians now; in another, nobody is any longer a Keynesian.”
Still there are things within Nixon’s presidency that vastly separate him from Obama and make his time in office noteworthy and deserving of exploration.
alice // October 26, 2009 at 10:04 am
I agree that Nixon was far more complex than he is popularly thought to be. And as for Keynes, he wasn’t truly a Keynesian either. My sister said Bennett talked about him and that he is largely misunderstood as well.
I need to do some reasearch on this.
sanityinjection // October 27, 2009 at 11:44 am
Nixon is a fascinating and complex figure. He evolved from the Red-baiting ally of Joe McCarthy, to the civil servant who refused to drag the country into crisis in order to prove that the Presidency was stolen by the Kennedys, to the diplomat who engaged one of America’s most powerful enemies, to the paranoiac who torpedoed his Presidency with his ruthless pursuit of his “enemies”, to the man who felt called by God to save the nation of Israel from annihilation, to the respected elder statesman who advised later Presidents on foreign policy. That’s quite a journey.
Jason // October 27, 2009 at 11:55 am
Sanity, well said.
Sean // October 27, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Guys very thought provoking. I like Sanity’s summary.
The big difference between the two so far is that despite Nixon’s demons he still got things done and seemed to lead from the front. Obama is trapped by an agenda that was set for him before he was even sworn in. Now that his mojo is fading he seems very unoriginal and unable to lead his party through the straits.
Obama is typical of any charismatic blowhard without any real talents. Obama is part of the machinery, not the conductor.
My final point is to say go and do a quick wiki search on Nixon’s accomplishments as a model setting president. Nixon was a professional statesman. Obama is a clown and is being exposed as someone who is way out of his league.
Mike // October 27, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Sanity reminded me of two things about Nixon. The first was his prominence in the McCarthy hearings and his ruthless and relentless questioning of communist, Alger Hiss.
The second was the question over the Kennedy’s stealing the election. If memory serves me correctly the votes in question were from Illinois.
How is that for irony?
Sean-Professional statesman is the best phrased description of Nixon’s career up to Watergate. He truly was a complex but flawed individual.
President Warren G. Harding: The best and the worst of 882 days in office. « The Western Experience // November 10, 2009 at 8:08 pm
[...] } by Mike Around here, it isn’t hard to figure out that we have a certain affinity for American Presidential history. Which brings me to Jason’s post on Warren G. Harding, the [...]