Richard Nixon was certainly hated by the longhaired hippie types who carried commie flags around in 1970.
Nixon was also hated by the liberally biased news media at that time.
Nixon was no Marxist-Leninist, but he signed off on the creation of OSHA and the EPA. Whatever Carter, Clinton and now Obama have done with those agencies is bad, but Nixon did sign off on their creation.
In 1854 Commodore Perry opened up Japan and in 1941 Japan opened up on the United States. Whatever China does in the future, I will always look back on Nixon’s opening the door.
The appeasement of the Soviet Union was morally wrong as Alesksandr Solzhenitsyn stated so eloquently in the mid 70’s.
Obama has certainly used the IRS on conservative people, but in Nixon’s time it was used on a conservative, too. Then retired Air Force Chief of Staff, General Curtis Lemay, was audited in the Nixon era and Lemay thinks he was targeted for political purposes. Lemay ran for vice-president with third party presidential candidate George Wallace in 1968.
How many times have we heard conservatives speak of the “Fairness Doctrine” threat from Clinton or Obama???
Well Richard Nixon’s FCC used fairness doctrine rulings against his enemies. NBC News was hit on a pension documentary, but won a partial victory in the appeals court.
But conservative radio preacher Dr. Carl McIntire was not so lucky. The Nixon FCC took his radio station off the air in response to liberal complaints about a lack of fairness in his programming.
McIntire received a letter of apology from Charles Colson, who was Nixon’s White House counsel.
McIntire was found to be on the “enemies list” with all the lefties by the media.
McIntire’s crime was to hold mass rallies (100-thousand plus people on more than one occasion) demanding a military victory in the Vietnam War, contrary to Nixon’s “peace treaty” policies with the communists.
Moderate Republicans do not like or support conservatives and Nixon was no exception. When talking to his liaison to conservatives, Patrick Buchanan, he would say “What do they want”?
My distaste for Mr. Nixon is not a Leftist talking point, it is a Conservative talking point.
He also signed off on the Endangered Species Act.
Where I’m coming from on this is a interesting slant. No he wasn’t a dyed in the wool Conservative. He sure wasn’t the enemy of Katheryn Graham’s causes either. And yet that bitch flew into him and sicked her dogs on him.
Do you think Nixon was worse than any Leftist in his day? Hell no. And that’s where I’m coming from on this. No Nixon was not our idea of a Conservative by any means, but this is war. The Left does what they do, and then we help them take our own down. And yes I realize he wasn’t “our own” on important issues.
Look, if we’re going to sign off on them taking Nixon down, and then selling the idea he was the worst bastard in the White House ever, we just as well hang up our hat and forget about trying to get someone elected.
I say defend Nixon. I say defend him on the grounds that if they had been in there, they would have done all the things you listed that Nixon did, that we didn’t like. So if you think about it, those things are a push.
Should we seek out guys like Nixon and try to get them elected? Hell no, but if we don’t defend them against the proverbial witch hunt, who is safe?
Look at our last nomination process. That is exactly what I’m talking about. The media laid back and dropped bombshell after bombshell and we let them knock our folks out of the races. Some of them were decent people too.
How many dead bodies were there around Nixon? How many scandals the level of White Water were there? How many women came forward claiming rape? How many more were intimidated by private eyes intimidating them?
Did Nixon get massive payouts in donations from the Chinese? Did Nixon install known spies in the White House? Did Nixon facilitate China getting our MIRV Technology, the latest Gyro Technology, and a myriad of other top secret items and top rate briefings?
I think it’s great to realize who Nixon was, and to hold him to account on it. I just think we play right into the Left’s hands when we allow them to act as if Nixon was the worst president we ever had, and Bill Clinton was just a popular playboy the Right was jealous of. As for Obama, they play us off as racists, and Nixon remains the Devil’s spawn.
Nixon was far from perfect, but he was a piker as it relates to Clinton and Obama. And as long as we allow them to make him the scorn king, it’s a blight on our cause.
Clinton and Obama both deserve jail time, and it’s a lot more serious jail time than Nixon deserved.
That’s where I’m coming from.
Politically we did not identify with him, and still don’t. That’s okay. We shouldn’t. I’ll be damned if I want to let the Left game the whole thing though. No way.