I Never Thought I Would Miss Nixon……Then Again

I saw the following bumper sticker the other day that brought a smile to my lips:

I Never Thought I Would Miss Nixon

What brought the smile was the shear amount of truth in those seven words. Yes, George W. Bush has done what I would have thought impossible. He made me miss Tricky Dick in all his ugly glory. When Nixon was in power, I was firmly convinced that there could never be another President as bad. With Georgie, I have discovered there not only could be as bad but there is worse. Nixon inherited his war, Vietnam; it was a full bore going tragedy when he took office. He also claimed, falsely, to have a secret peace plan. He got many killed needlessly, both military and civilian. Bush is the middle of a quagmire of his own making and insistence that we stay there with him. Nixon had a lust for power but it was tempered by a certain respect for the office of President that Bush rarely even bothers to pretend to have.

Nixon was swept into office on a landslide in 1972. Bush squeaked by in both 2000 and 2004. From these two statements alone, one would assume that Nixon was the one with more absolute power. And one would be wrong. What the driver of the truck with the bumper sticker and I really miss, is a Congress that keeps the system in balance. Congress during the Nixon years was controlled by the Democrats thus preventing the establishment of King Dick. The Republican Congress of the last six years has anointed King George.

I was going to an out of state college in 1972 and had to vote absentee. Absentee ballots had to be witnessed by a notary in those days so a dorm mate and I walked over to the Student Union to get our ballots notarized before mailing. He told me he was voting for Nixon because McGovern was just too radical. I tried to argue that voting for Nixon was a mistake because look at all the bad crap he had pulled during his first term. My friend said not to worry because even though he was voting for Nixon, his Congressional votes were for Democrats to keep Nixon in line. He proved to be right. Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.

The current Congress has nearly abdicated all their power and turned it over to the Executive branch. We now have the closest thing to a unitary Executive that we have ever had in our history. The Patriot Act and the Torture & Detainee Act are America’s first steps analogous to the 1930’s Enabling Acts of Nazi Germany. The country now exists at a critical crossroads. Elections are not football games. It is not a matter of rooting for the winner, it is a matter of if we want the Republic to endure or collapse under the weight of political expediency. Patriots, no matter what their normal political leanings, must examine objectively the actions of this President and this Congress. We don’t vote for President until 2008 but we have the chance in three weeks to decisively affect the Congress. We need a government of three branches not one. We must give up on the idea that our local guy is not as bad as the rest of them, so it doesn’t hurt to vote for him. That attitude and many similar ones is what brought us to this juncture in the first place. We must vote for a change, and the only viable choice is a Democratic Congress before it is too late.

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