Have your opinions on Goldwater and Nixon changed after seeing this regime

[MessiahRp]

?

After seeing the extremists of the right, I think a lot of opinions of these two have changed the past 6 years. Even if Nixon was a paranoid war monger he was a social liberal.

Things are just quite a bit different today aren't they?

Rp

[slackmaster]

1. My opinion of Nixon improved LONG before the Bush regime

At the time I registered to vote (1976) many people still thought there wouldn't be another Republican President for a whole generation.

In retrospect Nixon almost looks like a good guy. He did open relations with China, and got us out of Vietnam.

[Warpy]

4. He didn't get us out of Vietnam, the Vietnamese did.

But he did sign the EPA into existence and, like you said, he did open up diplomatic relations with China. Whether or not the latter can be counted a long term success remains to be seen. Right now, it seems a dismal failure: they've looted our industry while encouraging Stupid's profligate spending.

He was a mixed bag who only seems better now because the pressent squatter in the White House is SO BAD.

[napi21]

2. I don't think my opinion of those two changed, as much as I

realize how much worse Repubs can get!

[MissWaverly]

3. Well, I dunno about that

Cheney who was in the Nixon WH, was his disciple and is still following his playbook, he is
the architect of swiftboating, the enemies list, wiretapping, had plans for a permanent
one party majority, and was a major follower of dirty tricks, then there was money
laundering, and don't forget Watergate was a break in of the DNC, then there was
the break in at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist for a little data mining. Hmmmn a lot this
was all dreamed up by trickie dickie; oh and don't forget Spiro Agnew who resigned after
"beating the rap."

[guinivere]

5. My opinion hasn't changed.

Nixon is still a crook. But the shrub is a worse crook.

[rzemanfl]

6. They would have been just as bad if there hadn't been an

independent news media then. Plus, I was a lot younger then and could throw a rock a reasonable distance withoug getting bursitis.

[spanone]

7. Still can't stand either one.

[sofa king]

8. Nixon championed self-determination for Indian tribes.

But he's still an asshole, and the moral progenitor of the criminals in charge now.

[stevedeshazer]

9. No. It's the difference between "worst" and "worstest".

Goldwater wanted to use nukes.

[madokie]

10. bad and badder

[MarinCoUSA]

11. Nixon No, Goldwater No,

Nixon inaugurated the so called "Southern Strategy". This was the GOP's recasting the civil rights movement and to a lesser extend the later-I's movements (women, enviro) as the enemy of all true white Americans. The country's political discourse and timber has been profoundly effected by this one act. As a result of the souther strategy, the country is currently in the throes of a horrible political chapter worse than anything Nixon was the gall to attempt. Simply put Bush is very horrible for the country but he is not, like Nixon, an evil genius.

actions while in power were very reactionary and the country is better off not following his brand of conservatism. And to his great good credit he did recant on civil rights

[FloridaPat]

12. No. I liked both of them before. Although I did read that Nixon

was trying to do what * did.

[Nozebro]

13. Nixon, responsible for many liberal laws, was framed for Watergate.

Read "Silent Coup" and you'll never think of Nixon in the same way again.

[LTR]

14. Goldwater - definitely yes; Nixon - mild yes

Goldwater seemed very extreme for 1964, and he was somewhat. But Goldwater was still an honest guy. And he was very pro-environment. His downfall was he was way too much of a war hawk.

Nixon did have a little bit of a liberal streak in him (very little). But he was a vile criminal with his enemies list and his attempts to silence opposition. Several former Nixon cronies hold high positions in the Bush Administration (Cheney, Rumskull, Rover). His successor, Gerald Ford, combined all of the (relatively few) good things about Nixon while still being a genuine, uncorrupt person. Ford was the last decent Republican president.

Karma bit Nixon in the ass. He was still better than Bush II will ever be, hence the 'mild yes'. Bush lowered the bar for everyone.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Nixon was a mass murderer on a grand scale.

The difference between him and Bush was that Nixon had brains to go with his fascism. The ethics and humanity of both are about equal.

[sandnsea]

16. They had a Democratic Congress

who pushed the agenda and forced Nixon to sign bills that Republicans might well have opposed otherwise. They were different because of the times, not because of political ideology. One only has to go back to FDR and Truman campaigns to see that Republicans were exactly the same then as they are now - anybody who isn't a free market God fearin' Republican is a commie pinko. That hasn't changed a bit.