Who Was a Bigger Fuckup: Nixon or Bush?
Ordinarily, even considering what a sinister rat fuck Nixon was, the kind of Republican that would make actual sinister rats start calling their lawyers to file slander suits, ordinarily this would be, like Bush, a nobrainer. Yet, this is a debate that seems to be raging on my own Buzzflash.net link to my last post. Here's most of the opening comment that started this debate that, you would think, would never have to be held.
Listen people, Nixon was a far worse monster than Bush (who is mostly just an idiot) and Kissinger was and is a far worse monster than Cheney (who is also more an idiot than anything). Yet, despite the carnage those demon-possessed walking horrors caused in Asia, Latin America and the US (constitutional and economic carnage), the Nixon era remains one of the most progressive eras in US history (a fact that is telling in itself). Why? The Congress actually acted like the primary branch of government, as the Constitution intends it to be. Today's Congress is nothing but a pack of sychophants.
Now, let me point out this guy's no rightwinger or Bush apologist. He's a regular reader of mine on Buzzflash. He'd even given me a positive buzz for this article. Still this has left me scratching my head. Others have followed. So here's my response:
That's a curious historical appraisal, of Nixon being worse than Bush.
HST had the last word on this in one of his final articles for ROLLING STONE: He said that Nixon would be branded a liberal if he ran for President in 2004. The reason he'd written this is because he reminded us that Nixon, in his memoirs, said that if you want to end war, simply take the profit out of it.
Even Kerry and Gore never said that. Neither had Obama or Hillary. Yes, Nixon, the guy who fueled Vietnam for another five and a half years, said profits and war were inextricably entwined and could easily be mutually eliminated through mere separation (Yeah, I know, but it's nice to dream).
So I think it's extraordinarily amusing that anyone would think that a guy who'd bugged Dem National HQ is worse than a dry drunk Bozo who'd bugged an entire nation with the complicity of private industry by conspicuous relief.
Thoughts?
posted by jurassicpork @ Thursday, July 10, 2008
5 comments
5 Comments:
nixon was corrupt, but he sure wasn't stupid. he was paranoid, but not a coward. nixon talked tough, but he actually was tough.
bush is a pale imitation of corruption, not even bothering to hide most of his tracks. he's 'bush league' compared to nixon in every criteria except the fucking havoc he has wrought.
That's an interesting distinction, Stevie. He was also, in a way, more successful than Nixon ever was. His aim was to grab as much power as possible, expertly using 9/11 as leverage, and to make as much money as possible for his playmates in the military industrial complex.
JP - I've been thinking about this question since you've posted it and it's getting frustrating.
My only realtime memory of Nixon as president was when he wasn't. I watched the crook climb into the helicopter for his last ride. My thought of the crook is as a power player, that is he kept pushing until he was buried by his own bullshit.
W, on the other hand, is so goddamned fresh in my mind that I have trouble judging him anywhere near objectively.
But as a bigger fuckup?
The crook's mistake was getting caught. He realized his mistake and resigned.
W doesn't make any mistakes, if you recall. He's doing his job so freaking seamlessly the founding fathers are causing grassfires from the friction of them spinning in their graves.
So...fuckup? The crook. W is only a more pure evil - refined through the years - as only America can produce in the field of economics...
I think the real litmus test is to ask who is achieving his goals (and his goals are really those of his base).
I think the transfer of money to his buddies makes Chimpy the hands-down winner.
Cynical and simple, that's me.
Regards,
Tengrain
JP,
Yeah, Nixon was a real ratfucker. I fought many a battle against Nixon's Nazis back in the day. Times were tough, of that there can be no question.
However, twas Ronnie Raygun who started the train wreck of inept governance. Say what you will, Watergate was "merely" a domestic affair; Iran-Contra was world wide. Then we had Bush and Panama, Clinton in Somalia, Bosnia and Yugoslavia and then to Bush the Lesser and the fabled GWOT.
Also, for all his failings, Nixon had half a brain; Junior seems to have had a brainectomy rather early on.
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