I have one word for him too, Iran. The economy that he made worse was given to him by the next guy on our list...
Nixon : I was a baby then. Parents scarcely let me watch the evening news, much less tell me who Nixon was. By the time I got any idea of what was going on in the country, Ford was running for re-election. That's as far back as I can remember. If my parents talked about him, I don't remember what was said. All I knew was that he had been caught doing something and decided to leave office.
I voted for Carter because of him. Big media was reaching the height of it's power. More than anyone or anything else, the media took down Nixon. Tip O'Neill also had a lot of power, the kind that Newt tried to match, but failed to do because of the media. Congress pandered to the blue hairs, because they were the most powerful voting block. Grannys were getting forced to eat dog food & we needed to take Social Security from a supplement to more of a full livable income for our needy seniors. Boomer income was starting to help fill government coffers & they weren't going to be eligible to collect for years down the road. Spend that money now & let them worry about it in the future.
Price controls were the answer to a sickening economy while he was in office. Suppliers responded by changing the sizes of containers, which is why a one pound can of coffee is no longer a pound. Nickle candybars got reduced in size & the price went up to a dime. Gum went from 5 sticks in a pack for a nickle, to 7 for a dime. (I was a kid & candy prices were important to me then. LOL)
Johnson - Ugh. The impression I got of LBJ is that all his talk of a Great Society was a facade. I don't think he's much admired in any quarters of the American populace. The more I learn about him, the less I think he had done anything to inspire Americans. And this coming from a former student of the college he attended (SWTSU - San Marcos)
He set the wheels in motion for our coming train wreck. Mr. Guns & Butter showed all politicians the way to the yellow brick road.
Kennedy : I wasnt even a glimmer in my daddy's eye (such as it was). I am only learning about Kennedy through history, and from what I understand, he was the last President before Reagan to inspire people about their country.
They raised Kennedy to near sainthood after his death. I bought it, cuz I was a kid. My Mom, who has rarely found a lefty she doesn't like, got me to take a more realistic view towards him. Her dislike of the Kennedy's was personal, cuz Bobby had gone after her uncle. Without the cheating by the Daley machine in Chicago, he would not have been President.
I remember learning about the Daley stuff here on FR!! Thank God for FR/JimRob! Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Kennedy the one who actually set the Vietnam wheels in motion and LBJ just took it to its (illogical) Lefty end? It's not that I don't think some form of protest should have been put up for the mismanagement. Its the radicalism that was spawned.
I have been reading a lot of what David Horowitz has written, and I am deeply grateful he has gone through the effort to shine a brighter spotlight of that era.
I think, to tell you the truth, I just get tired of hearing how great the 60s were, and the automatic assumption that I am going to agree with them. I was too young to get the full appreciation for it, but I *am* old enough to remember the awful dregs of it after Vietnam. It is an unforgiveable thing in my mind that so many who were in the military were punished by the louts that ran around in their horrible horrible lifestyle by spitting on them and calling them names. Any group of people who do that automatically get lumped into a bad group in my eyes.