Saint Richard?

Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace from the presidency exactly one week before my sixteenth birthday. As young as I was, I think I was fairly politically astute for my age and I was angry as hell at the bastard for what he had done to the country I love so much. I remember thinking at the time that It would never again get as weird as it had been during the Age of Nixon. But then a funny thing happened: in 1980, the American people sent a feeble-minded, failed "B" movie actor named Ronald Reagan to the White House and all of the sudden, Dick Nixon didn't look so bad anymore. Truth be told, at times I found myself feeling a sense of teary-eyed nostalgia for the old bugger. Well into Ronnie's second term, I wrote a song parody which was supposed to be sung to the tune of Bobby Goldsboro's 1968 hit, the fabulously maudlin, "Honey":
*******
One time I thought that Richard Nixon's presidency was the worst thing possible,
But that was many years ago and nowadays that sentiment seems laughable,
In 1980, somehow, the electorate coughed up a brain-dead movie star,
I never had faith in the voters but I never realized how dumb they are....
And Nixon, I miss you
And I'm feeling blue
I've lost all of my senses
I'm nostalgic for you....
And see the debt how big it's grown, but friends, it hasn't been too long - it wasn't big,
In early 1981, the debt that's now a red wood tree was just a twig.
*******
While Tricky Dick might have been inherently corrupt and dysfunctional as a human being, the man had a real and deep-seated affection for the aims and aspirations of the middle class of which he was a product. While some of his economic policies were questionable to say the least, the Trickster, unlike Reagan, never forgot where he came from. In his youth, he had known real poverty, not to mention personal tragedy - two of his brothers, Arthur and Harold, dying of tuberculosis at very young ages. Say what you want about the Nixon presidency - as bad as it might have been - no one will ever be able to realistically accuse his term of office as being an assault on people of modest means. That assault, which has been going on in full force for over a quarter of a century now, began on January 20, 1981 when Reagan took the oath of office as the fortieth president of the United States. It is now in the process of destroying the American middle class.
.
If Ronald Wilson Reagan was able to transform Richard Milhaus Nixon from ogre to grand old statesman - however flawed - the administration of George Walker Bush has turned the man into a virtual saint! And while the Gipper still looks like a doddering old fool, even in hindsight, he at least has the good fortune of being followed into office within the span of a mere twelve years by a man who will no doubt be remembered as the worst chief executive in American history. Reagan and Nixon might have been horrifically misguided as far as their respective ambitions were concerned, but they were surrounded by smart (if not brilliant) people who were at the very least marginally competent. And Nixon, it should not be forgotten, was not by any means possessed of a mediocre intellect. Other than Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, he probably had the best mind of any president who ever served. Even the worst administrations (Buchanan, Grant, Harding and Hoover come readily to mind) have had at least some redeeming factors. George W. Bush and the tidal wave of corruption and stupidity that comprises this disgusting administration will not be able to make that claim. When the final chapter of his reign of error is eventually written, nothing positive will be said to have come from this White House. Nothing.
.
When Richard Nixon died on April 22, 1994, the passage of twenty years time had somewhat softened the animosity many people had felt for him at the time of his resignation in 1974. Truth be told, I was shocked at how much the main stream media was able to white wash his legacy to the point of ridiculousness. Seeing people like convicted felons Charles "Chuck" Colson and G. Gordon Liddy being sought out to provide "objective" assessments of his life and career just didn't pass the giggle test as far as I was concerned. Nixon had tarnished the office of the presidency to such a degree that it would prove impossible for his hand-picked successor, the amiable and moderate Gerald R. Ford, to be elected in his own right two years later. He would end up being defeated by a relatively unknown, former governor of the state of Georgia named Jimmy Carter.
.
Somewhere in the void, Richard M. Nixon, you may be sure, is laughing right now. As revolting as the break in at the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972 might have been, when history finally renders its ultimate judgement, that crime will seem but a paper cut when placed in juxtaposition to George W. Bush's moral and ethical blood bath. Compared to the Bush Mob, the Nixon Gang are starting to look like a bunch of Trappist Monks. For all of their misdeeds (and I can't believe I'm even defending these guys, I assure you!) Bob Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Mitchell are remembered by those who knew them as basically decent and intelligent men who did some mean and stupid things. The Bush White House is riddled with far too many human characteristics to adequately catalogue; decency and intelligence are not among them.
.
I used to think that it couldn't get any worse than Nixon - then along came Reagan. I would console myself during the eighties by thinking that Ronnie's presidency was the ultimate in foolishness - and then along came a half-witted frat boy named George W. Bush. I'm not going to get fooled again into thinking that this is as bad as it gets - but I will tell you this: if, in the years to come, the American people are ever again foolish enough to send to the Oval Office someone who equals or surpasses this president in terms of sheer corruption and imbecility, it will destroy this country - that's assuming it's not already beyond repair.
.
Pray for peace.
.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
POST SCRIPT:
Happy Mothers Day!