It's weird, I remember so many pleasant and remarkable moments at your house and with your family, but I draw a complete blank on this date and event. Like you, I was taught by my parents to dislike and distrust Nixon. An evil man who perpetuated the Vietnam war, was the enemy of the left, and a lying and desperately manic SOB. Yet today his ghost seems rather quaint, morose and like a sorta dumpy shmuck, compared to the insidious turgid yam flailing his arms, fuming and melting as the current GOP candidate.
There are seminal moments I can't remember either but this one is pretty clear.
Steve Martin did a comedy routine that Nixon could have saved his presidency had he made people happy by playing the banjo. Instead, as Martin put it, Nixon ended up pathetically walking along the beach in baggy shorts with a metal detector. Even with all the successful and relatively honest books after "RN," Nixon was never able to put his knowledge to use with future presidents. He had "Loser" stamped all over him. Same today. Biden never called on Trump, and Harris won't either.
I was an 11-year-old political enthusiast myself, and also remember that day. My Mom and I were sitting on her bed watching that loathsome man resign. Oddly, what struck me most was his mention of the lemon farm on which he was born. I grumbled that his family sure had produced a lemon. (OK, OK, I know. I was still a child, so I long ago forgave myself for that childish stab at humor.) I had expected to be excited, but I felt sad instead, let down by him, our President. Presidents weren’t supposed to be the kind of person he was.
I was much more naive then than I could grasp at the time. In 2016, I refused to believe our country could go so low as to elect Trump, a guy who makes Nixon and GW Bush look like choir boys by comparison. But soon after that election, I realized that not-quite-exact analogies don’t serve us well when we use them to try learning from history. There will always be someone worse than the worst candidates you can imagine. Likewise there will always be someone better than the best candidates you can imagine.
Trump says he wants to be a dictator. I believe him. The Supreme court has handed him the rights of a King. And shocking as it was, I believe the Justices who voted yes on that case knew exactly what they were doing. I’m favorably impressed by VP Harris and Governor Walz. That’s enough for me to know who will get my donations, my vote, and where my current and future civic responsibilities lie.
It's weird, I remember so many pleasant and remarkable moments at your house and with your family, but I draw a complete blank on this date and event. Like you, I was taught by my parents to dislike and distrust Nixon. An evil man who perpetuated the Vietnam war, was the enemy of the left, and a lying and desperately manic SOB. Yet today his ghost seems rather quaint, morose and like a sorta dumpy shmuck, compared to the insidious turgid yam flailing his arms, fuming and melting as the current GOP candidate.
There are seminal moments I can't remember either but this one is pretty clear.
Steve Martin did a comedy routine that Nixon could have saved his presidency had he made people happy by playing the banjo. Instead, as Martin put it, Nixon ended up pathetically walking along the beach in baggy shorts with a metal detector. Even with all the successful and relatively honest books after "RN," Nixon was never able to put his knowledge to use with future presidents. He had "Loser" stamped all over him. Same today. Biden never called on Trump, and Harris won't either.
I was an 11-year-old political enthusiast myself, and also remember that day. My Mom and I were sitting on her bed watching that loathsome man resign. Oddly, what struck me most was his mention of the lemon farm on which he was born. I grumbled that his family sure had produced a lemon. (OK, OK, I know. I was still a child, so I long ago forgave myself for that childish stab at humor.) I had expected to be excited, but I felt sad instead, let down by him, our President. Presidents weren’t supposed to be the kind of person he was.
I was much more naive then than I could grasp at the time. In 2016, I refused to believe our country could go so low as to elect Trump, a guy who makes Nixon and GW Bush look like choir boys by comparison. But soon after that election, I realized that not-quite-exact analogies don’t serve us well when we use them to try learning from history. There will always be someone worse than the worst candidates you can imagine. Likewise there will always be someone better than the best candidates you can imagine.
Trump says he wants to be a dictator. I believe him. The Supreme court has handed him the rights of a King. And shocking as it was, I believe the Justices who voted yes on that case knew exactly what they were doing. I’m favorably impressed by VP Harris and Governor Walz. That’s enough for me to know who will get my donations, my vote, and where my current and future civic responsibilities lie.
Thank you for replying, Carol. I appreciate both your memories and your insight of today's situation.