Nixon's worst legacy

[Luna Tick]

A lot of people think Nixon's worst legacy is Watergate. Some thing it's his handling of the Vietnam War. However, I think it's his War on Drugs. Watergate was extremely unethical, but how much is it affecting us today. To be fair about Vietnam, Nixon did not start that war. He inherited it. It took him way too long to stop it, but he was working from the model of the last war. We had successfully contained North Korea and allowed South Korea to keep existing not under communist rule. Nixon thought we could do the same with Vietnam. He even got a peace agreement with North Vietnam in '73 in which they agreed to that. However, they didn't keep their word and invaded the south anyway. Was his handling of that war great? No. But it was somewhat understandable given the times and our perspective. We did not have the 20/20 hindsight we do now.

The war on drugs has been Nixon's worst legacy. Billions spent, nothing better. Too many people incarcerated. Strained relationships with our neighbor, Mexico; many dead in their country. It's been a disaster.

 

[Peter Grimm]

I wasn't alive then, but it seems Nixon was just a bad president all around. The only good thing he ever did was to take us off the gold standard.

A lot of people think Nixon's worst legacy is Watergate. Some thing it's his handling of the Vietnam War. However, I think it's his War on Drugs. Watergate was extremely unethical, but how much is it affecting us today. To be fair about Vietnam, Nixon did not start that war. He inherited it. It took him way too long to stop it, but he was working from the model of the last war. We had successfully contained North Korea and allowed South Korea to keep existing not under communist rule. Nixon thought we could do the same with Vietnam. He even got a peace agreement with North Vietnam in '73 in which they agreed to that. However, they didn't keep their word and invaded the south anyway. Was his handling of that war great? No. But it was somewhat understandable given the times and our perspective. We did not have the 20/20 hindsight we do now.

The war on drugs has been Nixon's worst legacy. Billions spent, nothing better. Too many people incarcerated. Strained relationships with our neighbor, Mexico; many dead in their country. It's been a disaster.

 

[haymarket]

We had an era with Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Kennedy where a career in government was considered as an honorable way to serve the people of the nation. Nixon was the one who forever changed all that by dredging up the image of the politician as a selfish crook who would sell out all things good just for his own survival.

That is the most damaging legacy of Richard Nixon.

 

[Luna Tick]

I wasn't alive then, but it seems Nixon was just a bad president all around. The only good thing he ever did was to take us off the gold standard.

No, he did a few other good things. He established the EPA and had a good environmental record in general. He got us good relations with China after that country had been isolationist for years. He worked with the Soviet Union for a relationship known as "detente," which essentially was a relationship of tolerance. He attempted to pass a health care reform bill that was more progressive than Obamacare. It included a public option and would have insured 100 percent of the country. Ted Kennedy didn't support it because he wanted single payer, but then later regretted not doing so. Nixon got distracted from negotiating with Kennedy when he got wrapped up in the Watergate scandal. Had it not been for that scandal, they may have worked out a compromise. Nixon could have been the president to establish universal health care in the US. It would have been far better than Obamacare. We would have avoided the screaming fights over that.

Essentially, Nixon was a mixed bag. He did certain things that were good for the country, but then his lack of ethics encouraged him to do a bunch of things that really hurt us. If you have the chance, I recommend visiting his presidential library in Yorba Linda, California (near Anaheim). In the Watergate room there, they have a video of Nixon being interviewed in which he says something to the effect of in politics you simply have to play ruthless and dirty. That was his problem. He believed you had to do that to the point of even doing things that were illegal.

 

[Spartacus FPV]

I wasn't alive then, but it seems Nixon was just a bad president all around. The only good thing he ever did was to take us off the gold standard.

He didn't take us off the gold standard, we defaulted on it.

 

[wolfman24]

We had an era with Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Kennedy where a career in government was considered as an honorable way to serve the people of the nation. Nixon was the one who forever changed all that by dredging up the image of the politician as a selfish crook who would sell out all things good just for his own survival.

That is the most damaging legacy of Richard Nixon.

Among other major issues but I really think this is the worst thing he did and he also instituted the managerial concept of "what are employees (govt) worth.

 

[TurtleDude]

Jimmy carter, handgun control inc and the EPA

 

[Luna Tick]

Jimmy carter, handgun control inc and the EPA

Carter didn't establish the EPA. Nixon did.

 

[TurtleDude]

Carter didn't establish the EPA. Nixon did.

well that is a big DUH. I was saying NIXON's WORST LEGACIES WERE

1) JIMMY CARTER

2) HANDGUN CONTROL INC

and

3) THE EPA

capiche?

 

[Jeezy]

I wasn't alive then, but it seems Nixon was just a bad president all around. The only good thing he ever did was to take us off the gold standard.

...and split the Beijing/Moscow alliance.

...and was in charge of the first large-scale school integration in the south.

...and presided over Neil Armstrong's moon landing.

 

[Luna Tick]

well that is a big DUH. I was saying NIXON's WORST LEGACIES WERE

1) JIMMY CARTER

2) HANDGUN CONTROL INC

and

3) THE EPA

capiche?

Oh, I see. Nixon's somehow responsible for the election of Jimmy Carter. For that one election, we didn't allow voting and delegated the responsibility of choosing the president to Richard Nixon and he picked Carter. That's some really interesting history that I didn't know. I thought millions of Americans voted for Carter and that's how he got in. And, btw, the EPA is a good legacy for Nixon. You have to be out of your mind to think it's not. And most handgun control laws are passed at the local level such as the one in New York City. That city's local politicians are responsible for that, not Richard Nixon. Or was he elected Mayor of NYC? Gosh, there's so many things I didn't know about the man.

 

[Peter Grimm]

And we all know that Neil Armstrong would never have landed on the moon, had not Richard Nixon been there to preside over it. eace

...and split the Beijing/Moscow alliance.

...and was in charge of the first large-scale school integration in the south.

...and presided over Neil Armstrong's moon landing.

 

[notquiteright]

Luna-
TD is just doing the usual extremist deflecting of responsibility.

Without the stank of a Nixon Presidency, not to mention Gerald Ford's quick pardon before any charges were offered, dripping all over the GOP- Carter would not have won the White House over former speaker of the House Ford. (least we forget the VP Spiro Agnew had been charged with political racketeering back in his home state and thus not around to take over when Nixon scuttled off.)

The National Council to Control Handguns was founded in 1974, I however don't recall President Nixon endorsing them. Perhaps our rabid radical right friends fault Nixon for not sending G.Gordon Liddy to NCCH and doing a bit of 'wet work'.

Without the EPA many parts of this country would look like and be as deadly as the Iron Curtain industrial districts. Might be a nit to the multi-generational wealthy living far removed from the toxins and acid rain but those middle class workers in those areas it means a great deal.

Nixon's War on Drugs was a bone tossed to the Silent Majority to balance the loses in Vietnam, struggling economy, collapsing of the traditional industries, rise of a disaffected generation. Nixon didn't cause any of this but his political inclination was to use it to his advantage. A new 'war' we would fight here at home for the hearts and minds of generation lost to drugs, for a generation that should have been more worried about the economic base shifting under their feet.

Nixon was a product of his early struggles to gain political clout. He gains his best traction during the early anti-communist fights in this country where the Republicans accused the Dems of 'losing' China. After years of blindly linking China with Russia it became somewhat apparent they were not good buddies. Only a Republican who was as rabid a commie 'fighter' could go to China. If a Dem had gone the GOP would have howled about another sell-out by the liberal/commie/pinko Dems.

Same with early 2nd amendment restrictions, only republicans could endorse restrictions on their fellow Americans and have a good chance of them being accepted. from Governor Reagan's ending Open Carry in California to 'combat' radical urban unrest to his severe restrictions on automatic weapons while President. Then of course BushI and more restrictions. President Reagan endorsed the so-called Brady backround checks. He endorsed the 'assault weapons ban' and lobbied members of congress to vote for the bill.

It takes one of your own kind to sell you out. Nixon wasn't a sell-out, he was a ruthless politician.

 

[rhinefire]

I hate to bother the originator of this rediculous thread but dope was around many hundred years before Nixon going back to peyote, morphine, opium and good ol reefer. There has never been any realisitc goal of WINNING this so-called "War on Drugs" as the idea died with prohibition. If it was ticky dick's fault then why is the abuse of drugs so out of control here and heroin legal in Europen countries today? Also, as a reflection of America's need to get stoned envision a liquor store in the 1950's compared to the insane varities of vodkas, beers and whiskeys we see today. If America really wanted to conduct a war on drugs we could simply be going after drug violators in the same fashion the government goes after tax violators. Comment!?

 

[Μολὼν λαβέ]

I wasn't alive then, but it seems Nixon was just a bad president all around. The only good thing he ever did was to take us off the gold standard.

Nixon took the USA off the gold standard to pay for the costs associated with Vietnam. So now the USA is 16 trillion in debt due to our Ponsi scheme economy. This would not have happened on the gold standard. There would also be fewer rich people for some democrats to hate.

 

[Μολὼν λαβέ]

well that is a big DUH. I was saying NIXON's WORST LEGACIES WERE

1) JIMMY CARTER

2) HANDGUN CONTROL INC

and

3) THE EPA

capiche?

Of course had Nixon not been associated with Watergate Jimma Carter would have had a much less chance of being elected POTUS. However, I think Gerald Ford is more to blame for Jimmy Carter getting elected than Nixon. Had he not pardoned Nixon, Ford would have had a better shot at being re-elected himself.

 

[TurtleDude]

Of course had Nixon not been associated with Watergate Jimma Carter would have had a much less chance of being elected POTUS. However, I think Gerald Ford is more to blame for Jimmy Carter getting elected than Nixon. Had he not pardoned Nixon, Ford would have had a better shot at being re-elected himself.

true enough=Ford did what was best for the nation knowing it would kill his re-election chances. LIke GHWB, Ford was a real patriot

 

[TurtleDude]

Oh, I see. Nixon's somehow responsible for the election of Jimmy Carter. For that one election, we didn't allow voting and delegated the responsibility of choosing the president to Richard Nixon and he picked Carter. That's some really interesting history that I didn't know. I thought millions of Americans voted for Carter and that's how he got in. And, btw, the EPA is a good legacy for Nixon. You have to be out of your mind to think it's not. And most handgun control laws are passed at the local level such as the one in New York City. That city's local politicians are responsible for that, not Richard Nixon. Or was he elected Mayor of NYC? Gosh, there's so many things I didn't know about the man.

You don't read what I wrote very well-I said Handgun control INC not a handgun control law

 

[Jeezy]

And we all know that Neil Armstrong would never have landed on the moon, had not Richard Nixon been there to preside over it. eace

Oh, don't give me that nonsense.

Obama presided over Bin Laden's assassination. History will give him the credit. Nixon presided over the moon landing. Same thing.

 

[LiberalAvenger]

check out the spraying of paraquat to poison people by nixon. The only president to poison his own peopl

USA Drug Policy History

 

[Luna Tick]

Nixon took the USA off the gold standard to pay for the costs associated with Vietnam. So now the USA is 16 trillion in debt due to our Ponsi scheme economy. This would not have happened on the gold standard. There would also be fewer rich people for some democrats to hate.

Stop with the misinformation. Democrats don't hate rich people. If someone can become rich in an ethical way, great. More power to them. However, it's only common sense that a wealthy person like Mitt Romney should not get to pay a lower percentage in taxes than someone making 50K per year. That's absurd. And it's certainly not fair for ultra rich corporations like the oil companies and GE to pay zero percent plus get corporate welfare. That's plutocracy, not democracy.

And Nixon had to take us off the gold standard because it was unsustainable. Our economy is not a Ponsi scheme. Such a scheme is a pyramid-based fraud. We don't have that. We simply are not taking in enough to cover our expenses. That's a sucky situation, but it's not Ponsi. It's correctable if we have the political will. We could start by ending all corporate welfare and military pork barrel projects and bringing the troops home from Afghanistan. Then let the Bush tax cuts expire on the super wealthy and close some of the loopholes. We should also end the church tax exemption. Make them pay the same taxes as any other organization. Then legalize sexual services, regulate and tax them. Legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational use, regulate it, and tax it. Do the same with psilocybin mushrooms. After we've done all that, if we're still not in balance, then, and only then, should we consider making the middle class pay somewhat more.

 

[Smeagol]

I would say the overthrow of the democratically elected President of Chile and installation of the brutal Dictator Augusto Pinochet has to at least be on the list. The guy he overthrew wouldn't have been the one I would have voted for but the one he replaced him with went on to kill thousands of his own people made possible by his placement in office by Nixon.

 

[Gawain]

A lot of people think Nixon's worst legacy is Watergate. Some thing it's his handling of the Vietnam War. However, I think it's his War on Drugs. Watergate was extremely unethical, but how much is it affecting us today. To be fair about Vietnam, Nixon did not start that war. He inherited it. It took him way too long to stop it, but he was working from the model of the last war. We had successfully contained North Korea and allowed South Korea to keep existing not under communist rule. Nixon thought we could do the same with Vietnam. He even got a peace agreement with North Vietnam in '73 in which they agreed to that. However, they didn't keep their word and invaded the south anyway. Was his handling of that war great? No. But it was somewhat understandable given the times and our perspective. We did not have the 20/20 hindsight we do now.

The war on drugs has been Nixon's worst legacy. Billions spent, nothing better. Too many people incarcerated. Strained relationships with our neighbor, Mexico; many dead in their country. It's been a disaster.

Your leaving out going off the gold standard. I cant see why liberals hate Nixon. He was one of them lol.

 

[Luna Tick]

Your leaving out going off the gold standard. I cant see why liberals hate Nixon. He was one of them lol.

Nixon was not a liberal. He was a moderate Republican, something we haven't seen for a long, long time.

 

[Gawain]

Nixon was not a liberal. He was a moderate Republican, something we haven't seen for a long, long time.

He was a raving liberal lol
Or should I say a progressive?

Do you think he could run as a republican today?