|
Post by Prince Hal on Nov 9, 2016 12:56:43 GMT -5
I think all along many of us thought/hoped that the rage was a shtick. That may well have been, but I'm not holding out much hope that there's going to be a Thomas a Beckett or Prince Hal/Henry V transformation brought on by some inner sense of nobility, principle or duty. He is a con man who has suckered in everyone who voted for him. Would love to be wrong, but I've been around too long and seen the ravages of the Wallaces, Nixons, and Bushes. To paraphrase Gerald Ford, our long national nightmare has begun.Due to being too young to have experienced his presidency, at the mention of his name, I always wondered if Mr Ford was just like the Simpsons depicted. Plus we could all use some comic relief. :-) The stumbling bit derived from his slipping on his way up (or down, can't recall) the steps of Air Force One. Chevy Chase ran with it and it became the go-to Ford imitation. I did not agree with Ford on much, but I will tell you this. After the two-year siege that was Watergate, with Nixon throwing aides over the parapets to save himself (not that they were innocents by any means), using the FBI director Patrick Gray to destroy files, defying and circumventing court orders for the tapes, firing the Attorney general and his second-in-command when they wouldn't subvert the law for him, using Agnew and his speechwriter Pat Buchanan as attack dogs to flay the media for daring to speak truth to power, etcetera, etcetera, Ford was more than a breath of fesh air. I listened to him take the oath of office while I was a college kid at work at the gas station. I'll never forget that moment. It was one of the proudest I had and will ever experience as an American. Ford spoke only briefly, but it was as if a demon had been exorcised from all of our lives and it was reassuring. There had not been tanks in the streets. There was no coup. No single person, it seemed was above the law, not even the President. The great experiment that is our form of government had passed another test. There was stagecraft that complemented this statecraft, of course; there always is when ritual and tradition are involved. But Ford did banish the nightmare and reassured us that we could now get back to business. Since then, of course, we've had so many assaults on the Constitution and our commonwealth, from Bush v. Gore, to the run-up to the Iraq War, to Citizens United, to the Patriot Act, to the castration of the Voting Rights Act, that Watergate seems like a cute little blip on the screen. Still, at that moment, Gerald Ford was what the nation needed, a decent guy who knew what he had to do at that moment and why, and for that I will always remember him fondly.
|
|
|
Post by adamwarlock2099 on Nov 9, 2016 13:01:49 GMT -5
I always wondered on a personal level more than just out of history book the kind of man Ford was. But being his last year in office was the year I was born, I never knew. Thanks for sharing that Hal.
|
|
|
Post by thwhtguardian on Nov 9, 2016 13:08:08 GMT -5
Due to being too young to have experienced his presidency, at the mention of his name, I always wondered if Mr Ford was just like the Simpsons depicted. Plus we could all use some comic relief. :-) The stumbling bit derived from his slipping on his way up (or down, can't recall) the steps of Air Force One. Chevy Chase ran with it and it became the go-to Ford imitation. I did not agree with Ford on much, but I will tell you this. After the two-year siege that was Watergate, with Nixon throwing aides over the parapets to save himself (not that they were innocents by any means), using the FBI director Patrick Gray to destroy files, defying and circumventing court orders for the tapes, firing the Attorney general and his second-in-command when they wouldn't subvert the law for him, using Agnew and his speechwriter Pat Buchanan as attack dogs to flay the media for daring to speak truth to power, etcetera, etcetera, Ford was more than a breath of fesh air. I listened to him take the oath of office while I was a college kid at work at the gas station. I'll never forget that moment. It was one of the proudest I had and will ever experience as an American. Ford spoke only briefly, but it was as if a demon had been exorcised from all of our lives and it was reassuring. There had not been tanks in the streets. There was no coup. No single person, it seemed was above the law, not even the President. The great experiment that is our form of government had passed another test. There was stagecraft that complemented this statecraft, of course; there always is when ritual and tradition are involved. But Ford did banish the nightmare and reassured us that we could now get back to business. Since then, of course, we've had so many assaults on the Constitution and our commonwealth, from Bush v. Gore, to the run-up to the Iraq War, to Citizens United, to the Patriot Act, to the castration of the Voting Rights Act, that Watergate seems like a cute little blip on the screen. Still, at that moment, Gerald Ford was what the nation needed, a decent guy who knew what he had to do at that moment and why, and for that I will always remember him fondly. I hope we get a new Ford in four years because Trump reminds me greatly of Nixon.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2016 13:08:35 GMT -5
Prince Hal thanks for sharing about Ford.
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Nov 9, 2016 13:14:44 GMT -5
I think all along many of us thought/hoped that the rage was a shtick. That may well have been, but I'm not holding out much hope that there's going to be a Thomas a Beckett or Prince Hal/Henry V transformation brought on by some inner sense of nobility, principle or duty. He is a con man who has suckered in everyone who voted for him. Would love to be wrong, but I've been around too long and seen the ravages of the Wallaces, Nixons, and Bushes. To paraphrase Gerald Ford, our long national nightmare has begun.Due to being too young to have experienced his presidency, at the mention of his name, I always wondered if Mr Ford was just like the Simpsons depicted. Plus we could all use some comic relief. :-) Ford was actually a pretty intelligent man and a shrewd politician. The common perception of him is based on a few minor incidents, that happened to get caught on film. He slipped on a wet aircraft ladder, coming off Air Force One and had another tumble. Saturday Night Live ran with this and the portrayal of Ford as a clutz and then as a moron. It was even picked up in The Pink Panther Strikes Back, where an obvious Ford analogue is obsessed with Football (his beloved Univ. of Michigan) and trips over his subordinates. What Ford wasn't was a dynamic leader and he never came across well in presidential addresses or in the debates, against Carter. However, that election proved to have a very narrow margin of victory. Funny enough, after an appearance at the Republican National Convention (I believe in 1980) there was a strong push to put him on the ticket as Vice President, and, in some quarters, to replace Reagan. Ford was a pragmatist, which would be a welcome change to the slate of politicians we have had in the last couple of decades. He understood the value of compromise. He also had the misfortune of following, first, Agnew, then Nixon, after both were disgraced. He also served during the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War and the failure was attached to him, even though US military involvement was pretty much done by 1972/73. What really hurt him was the state of the economy, which was suffering from the post-Vietnam downturn and the resulting effects of the OPEC oil embargo of 1973. That caused a stock market crash and the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. It carried into the Carter presidency and was instrumental, along with the Iran Hostage Crisis, in the election of Ronald Reagan and the growth of the Neo-Conservative movement. The sad fact of modern politics, in both parties, is that where we once had some nasty members, the parties generally found a way to find a compromise and continue the business of government. Not always to the benefit of the majority of the country; but they were in there trying. They didn't go around shutting things down and sitting on extreme points, generally speaking. It's hard to reconcile the party of Trump and W. Bush with the same one that nominated Dwight Eisenhower, or even Richard Nixon, let alone Lincoln. By the same token, Hillary Clinton is a far cry from Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, let alone the descendant of Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans.
|
|
|
Post by Prince Hal on Nov 9, 2016 13:18:14 GMT -5
The stumbling bit derived from his slipping on his way up (or down, can't recall) the steps of Air Force One. Chevy Chase ran with it and it became the go-to Ford imitation. I did not agree with Ford on much, but I will tell you this. After the two-year siege that was Watergate, with Nixon throwing aides over the parapets to save himself (not that they were innocents by any means), using the FBI director Patrick Gray to destroy files, defying and circumventing court orders for the tapes, firing the Attorney general and his second-in-command when they wouldn't subvert the law for him, using Agnew and his speechwriter Pat Buchanan as attack dogs to flay the media for daring to speak truth to power, etcetera, etcetera, Ford was more than a breath of fesh air. I listened to him take the oath of office while I was a college kid at work at the gas station. I'll never forget that moment. It was one of the proudest I had and will ever experience as an American. Ford spoke only briefly, but it was as if a demon had been exorcised from all of our lives and it was reassuring. There had not been tanks in the streets. There was no coup. No single person, it seemed was above the law, not even the President. The great experiment that is our form of government had passed another test. There was stagecraft that complemented this statecraft, of course; there always is when ritual and tradition are involved. But Ford did banish the nightmare and reassured us that we could now get back to business. Since then, of course, we've had so many assaults on the Constitution and our commonwealth, from Bush v. Gore, to the run-up to the Iraq War, to Citizens United, to the Patriot Act, to the castration of the Voting Rights Act, that Watergate seems like a cute little blip on the screen. Still, at that moment, Gerald Ford was what the nation needed, a decent guy who knew what he had to do at that moment and why, and for that I will always remember him fondly. I hope we get a new Ford in four years because Trump reminds me greatly of Nixon. True. Both paranoid, extremely insecure, manipulative, defensive, suspicious, easily threatened, ruthless, petty, vengeful, socially awkward. One exception was that Nixon was never ever even suspected of being unfaithful to his wife; he had other venalities. I think he was cruel to her, though, in the sense that he lied to her about what really was going on and used her to try to burnish his image. He was a Machiavellian, and Trump really isn't. It's a subtle difference between Trump and other ambitious politician types. Which is why I would submit that you're well within your rights to call Clinton a Machiavellian, Trump is not. A Machiavellian has a goal. A Machiavellian has a plan. A Machiavellian is a strategist. Trump is a tactician; he enjoys the back-and-forth of skirmishes. He does not have the insight, the skills or the mind to focus on a long game. Focusing on an eventual goal requires patience and forbearance. Trump's modus operandi has been to skip from project to project, feeding on the bullying and humiliation of those he relegates to a place beneath him on his self-created status scale. He cares for nothing beyond the immediate pleasure of the moment. Because he needs disorder to be successful, he thrives on it. He's not a businessman, he's a flim-flam artist. The bigger the lie for him, the better. He is crafty, cunning, and feral. He doesn't "do" nuance. He doesn't want to learn. And his only skills are those associated with self-preservation, not the interests of anyone else, past, present, and certainly not future. Hillary, even if you think she has no heart, has a mind, and her own survival and the establishment of a legacy serve as reins on her ambition and ego, just as they did on Nixon. Nixon listened to reason and resigned. Trump would never do that. He's more like James Cagney's Cody Jarrett at the end of White Heat, more than willing to destroy everything around him so long as he remains the center of attention. If Hillary is Lady Macbeth, Trump is Iago. The former had a conscience; the latter didn't.
|
|
|
Post by Prince Hal on Nov 9, 2016 13:19:01 GMT -5
Common sense and decency took a bigger one. But, Prince Hal, think of the gains made by the p***y-grabbing, tax-dodging, disability-mocking, racist, xenophobic, hero-mocking demographic! That's got to count for something! Damn! How could I have forgotten?
|
|
|
Post by codystarbuck on Nov 9, 2016 13:19:41 GMT -5
Due to being too young to have experienced his presidency, at the mention of his name, I always wondered if Mr Ford was just like the Simpsons depicted. Plus we could all use some comic relief. :-) The stumbling bit derived from his slipping on his way up (or down, can't recall) the steps of Air Force One. Chevy Chase ran with it and it became the go-to Ford imitation. I did not agree with Ford on much, but I will tell you this. After the two-year siege that was Watergate, with Nixon throwing aides over the parapets to save himself (not that they were innocents by any means), using the FBI director Patrick Gray to destroy files, defying and circumventing court orders for the tapes, firing the Attorney general and his second-in-command when they wouldn't subvert the law for him, using Agnew and his speechwriter Pat Buchanan as attack dogs to flay the media for daring to speak truth to power, etcetera, etcetera, Ford was more than a breath of fesh air. I listened to him take the oath of office while I was a college kid at work at the gas station. I'll never forget that moment. It was one of the proudest I had and will ever experience as an American. Ford spoke only briefly, but it was as if a demon had been exorcised from all of our lives and it was reassuring. There had not been tanks in the streets. There was no coup. No single person, it seemed was above the law, not even the President. The great experiment that is our form of government had passed another test. There was stagecraft that complemented this statecraft, of course; there always is when ritual and tradition are involved. But Ford did banish the nightmare and reassured us that we could now get back to business. Since then, of course, we've had so many assaults on the Constitution and our commonwealth, from Bush v. Gore, to the run-up to the Iraq War, to Citizens United, to the Patriot Act, to the castration of the Voting Rights Act, that Watergate seems like a cute little blip on the screen. Still, at that moment, Gerald Ford was what the nation needed, a decent guy who knew what he had to do at that moment and why, and for that I will always remember him fondly. I would echo that. Ford said:"I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your president with your prayers." as well as, "I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it. Those who nominated and confirmed me as Vice President were my friends and are my friends. They were of both parties, elected by all the people and acting under the Constitution in their name. It is only fitting then that I should pledge to them and to you that I will be the President of all the people." and "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice, but mercy. ... let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and hate."
|
|
|
Post by Prince Hal on Nov 9, 2016 13:24:40 GMT -5
Common sense and decency took a bigger one. I know, I know We anti-Hillary folks are just the worst Did I say that? Naive, yes, and short-sighted, and thrilled with all this instant gratification, but that doesn't mean you're the worst.
|
|
|
Post by tingramretro on Nov 9, 2016 13:25:01 GMT -5
ISIS is happy. And of course, Putin is very happy. Why would ISIS be happy? One infidel has got a job instead of another infidel. They don't care who your president is. As for Putin, I was under the impression the cold war ended decades ago.
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Nov 9, 2016 13:27:03 GMT -5
I always wondered on a personal level more than just out of history book the kind of man Ford was. But being his last year in office was the year I was born, I never knew. Thanks for sharing that Hal. During the '76 campaign, when I was a sophomore at UW, President Ford came through Seattle on a campaign swing. A bunch of us from my dorm went down to the waterfront to see him. After a thorough search by the Secret Service (who literally took my motorized wheelchair apart to make sure I wasn't some crippled kamikaze riding a bomb), my friends and I were allowed to move up front with the local press. When the big man (and he was BIG, his former football days still evident) arrived and started working the crowd, I was inundated in a wave of outstretched hands and thrusting microphones. Somehow Ford saw me in all that chaos. He reached out and pushed everyone else aside, shook my hand, asked me how I was, listened to my answer and thanked me for coming out. And he was absolutely sincere, you could see it in his eyes. I did not and never will agree with his politics but that one small moment of kindness, that instant of connection with the human being, assured me that the nation was in the hands of a fundamentally decent man. Kurt
|
|
|
Post by Warmonger on Nov 9, 2016 13:31:19 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Prince Hal on Nov 9, 2016 13:31:23 GMT -5
ISIS is happy. And of course, Putin is very happy. Why would ISIS b e happy? One infidel has got a job instead of another infidel. They don't care who your president is. As for Putin, I was under the impression the cold war ended decades ago. Where've you been? ISIS thrives on an enemy who falls into the trap of paying them constant public notice. Great PR for them. And Putin? Well, there's all that money Trump has tied up with Russian interests. Plus Trump has had an authoritarian boner for him since te day before forever. Putin is Hannibal Lecter waiting to have Trump over for dinner... with a few fava beans. But never fear: Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, General Flynn and Kelly Anne Conway will be there to save the day. Nothing like having good people around you.
|
|
Roquefort Raider
CCF Mod Squad
Modus omnibus in rebus
Posts: 17,177
Member is Online
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 9, 2016 13:34:34 GMT -5
ISIS is happy. And of course, Putin is very happy. Why would ISIS be happy? One infidel has got a job instead of another infidel. They don't care who your president is. As for Putin, I was under the impression the cold war ended decades ago. ISIS is happy because Trump's very public anti-islamic stance gives a huge boost to the worldview that they are trying to push to young moslems everywhere: that the west, and the United States in particular, are the enemy of Islam. Putin? He's probably not that happy, but Trump is more likely to let him pursue his agenda without asking too many questions about what happened to this journalist, that political opponent or that hospital in Aleppo. Besides, both men have expressed positive opinions of each other before.
|
|
|
Post by tingramretro on Nov 9, 2016 13:34:58 GMT -5
Why would ISIS b e happy? One infidel has got a job instead of another infidel. They don't care who your president is. As for Putin, I was under the impression the cold war ended decades ago. Where've you been? ISIS thrives on an enemy who falls into the trap of paying them constant public notice. Great PR for them. And Putin? Well, there's all that money Trump has tied up with Russian interests. Plus Trump has had an authoritarian boner for him since te day before forever. Putin is Hannibal Lecter waiting to have Trump over for dinner... with a few fava beans. But never fear: Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, General Flynn and Kelly Anne Conway will be there to save the day. Nothing like having good people around you. I'm afraid I've never heard of any of those four people, so I wouldn't know. But the Russian thing just sounds like paranoia to me.
|
|