Enough with this (begrudged) respect for NIXON, already!!!!

[DerekG]

I swear, if liberals from the 70's were told that in the 21st century, progressives would extend begrudged respect for Richard Milhous F@#$ING Nixon(!), they would have gone comatose.

Is this the same Nixon who ordered the Christmas bombing of Cambodia?

Is this the same Nixon who, alongside Johnson, presided over the deaths of 3 million people in Southeast Asia; the architect of the bombing of Laos, the aforementioned Cambodia, and Vietnam?

Is this the same Nixon who sought to use nuclear weapons rather than suffer a defeat in that ignominious war (read the transcripts)?

Is this the same Nixon who reacted to the Kent State shootings with nonchalance?

Is this the same Nixon who installed General Pinochet in Chile?



For the life of me, I can't understand some of these comments from posters:

"Well, at least Nixon loved his country!"

Are you kidding me? Yeah, Nixon loved his country so much that he arranged for Kissinger to sabotage the '68 Paris Peace talks so that he could win the election. A patriotic act, to be sure.

"Well, at least Nixon possessed intelligence."

Does it make any difference? What, is a cunning malice preferable to the banality of evil?

"Nixon was a liberal compared to Bush."

No, Nixon was held in check. He COULDN'T dismantle the Great Society at the time, for Congress was controlled by the Democrats. His EPA was a compromise to prevent the genesis of a stronger organization.



Please convince me that the 37th president wasn't a depraved, genocidal beast.

[Jacobin]

1. Clean Air Act, ties with China, Missile treaties

I'm a 60's hippie.

Nixon was run out of office because of Vietnam (Watergate was the pre-text).

Smirky has absolutely NO corresponding good deeds to his credit. He has done absolutely NOTHING positive in his entire putride, pathetic existence and certainly not in the WH.

Smirky has only managed to kill tens of thousands thus far, compared to Nixon's millions, but domestically, Nixon did good things, the the missile treaties were extremely important as was opening up a dialogue with China.

Gotta give the devil his due.

I will DEFY you to come up with ONE SINGLE positive thing that has come from the Smirk administraton. Go ahead. Name one, JUST ONE????

[quispquake]

3. I've put that question to so many people...

...and so far, not one person has been able to come up with ONE good answer...

How pitiful is that???

[DerekG]

11. You don't understand....

My point is that Nixon was just as deadly an adversary 30 years ago as Bush is now.

The fact that Nixon "opened up" China is not laudable, it is merely ironic, since he was one of the politicians during the late 40's that helped drive a wedge between America and the aforementioned country. The meeting between Mao and Dick reminds me of the conclusion to Orwell's Animal Farm.

The only positive thing I can remember about Shrub is his support of the amber warning system (that informs people when children are kidnapped). Then again, I haven't checked up to see whether or not any progress has been made.

[spanone]

2. I lived through Nixon and he was a lying, paranoid sob.

[H2O Man]

4. Great post!

I agree with you. I must admit that I have a # of books, both by and about Nixon, but NOT because I admire him. He was an enormously complexe character in our nation's history, and is responsible for the deaths of many, many human beings. Those people ate, inhaled, loved their families, and were unique humans who can not be replaced. Nixon caused their death. Still, it is fair to say that he had some okay qualities, perhaps even a few good points. For one example, Nixon did more to help traditional Native Americans have the ability to practice their religions than ANY other president. (Carter was actually one of the worst in recent history!) So it's not entirely black and white. Still, I agree that Nixon should be remembered as a criminal.

[NoPasaran]

5. Nixon was pure unadulterated evil

I've heard he's dead but I won't feel safe until they pound a stake through his heart.

I do think that on the whole with his Administration we were dealing with a slightly better class of criminal than the current junta, but even that may just be creeping nostalgia.

[dawgman]

6. experiments with reverse taxation and guaranteed income..

He wasn't a good guy but he did more "liberal" things than our liberal hero Mr. Clinton.

And the liberals of the sixties and seventies would be horrified to learn that we consider someone like Bill Clinton a hero.

[DemNoir]

7. I don't think its respect

But his domestic agenda is very interesting to look at, its an example of how incredibly far to the right this country has drifted. If one was to propose now the type of things he enacted, he would be considered way to far left to be nominated by the Dem party.

If Nixon had not been forced to resign we probably would have national health care today.

[amazona]

8. it isn't about nixon

It's about Reagan/Bush/Chimpy. We once thought Nixon was the great beast, the Anti-Christ, you name it, we thought it. We honestly thought it couldn't get worse. But it did. Nixon threw the people a bone from time to time, be it Clean Air Act or trying to broker some sort of peace with the Communist nations. Reagan/Bush/Chimp are all about the stealing for personal benefit to themselves and their backers -- they have done nothing for the people whatsoever. If Nixon was Caesar, Chimpy is Caligula. It doesn't mean anyone is so in love with Caesar. It's just a recognition that there is always another step downward that these monsters can take.

And, yeah, cunning malice is to be preferred to stupidity-based evil. Self-interest ultimately prevents the malicious but at least moderately intelligent person from dumping too much poison in his own air or water; when you are dealing with mental midgets like Reagan or the Bushes, they don't even know where their own self-interest lies. 9-11/Iraq is just one shining example -- you are attacked by Muslim religious extremists so your answer is to attack and destroy one of the few secular Muslim nations? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Intelligent evil is bad, sure. But stupid evil is going to start World War III -- if we're not already in a slow-motion world war III already.

[demnan]

9. Just shows how bad Bush stinks

when Nixon comes out smelling like a rose

[peacetalksforall]

10. The driving force behind the Clinton impeachment was to even the

score for the Nixon near-impeachment. If you listened closely, different people appearing as guest experts (propaganda twits), like Grover Norquist, would slip and reveal. There was a constant stream of how intelligent he was and all the good things he did like open trade with the USSR and the PRC. Now, wasn't that great - your tax dollars going to fight communism with incredible toys and the corporate friends were making out in business deals (and/or secrets).