In the bi-centennial summer of 1976, what could be a better place to visit than our nation's capital? And yet, while I know I went there after Nashville and did some sightseeing, I really don't remember too much about that day. I didn't meet anyone there, and a shared vacation viewpoint is always twice as good and far more memorable. One of the great things about cruises for single passengers is that you always are traveling with people who share interests with you. All you need to do is sign up for what interests you, and you have new friends.
Anyway, I didn't take any photos to spur my memory, but I know that at this phase of my life and our country's life, a lot of things were up in the air. The Vietnam War had ended and President Nixon had resigned, but neither of these came as quiet transitions. A great deal of strife accompanied them.Nixon was never impeached, as he didn't want to put the country through that. I know I was among those who saw him as the epitome of what was wrong with government, but in retrospect, the issue that brought his administration down was trivial and silly. McGovern, who had been my candidate, essentially had one issue: end the war. When Nixon used the bully pulpit to announce he was ending the war during the campaign season, the silliness of everything else about McGovern's far-left stands on issues gave Nixon a landslide. As to why Nixon's campaign staff thought it necessary to bug the offices of a psychiatrist and break into the Watergate Hotel is really one of the great mysteries and political absurdities of all time. The combination of Deep Throat sneaking information to Woodward and Bernstein along with Nixon tapping his own office brought about a slow leak that destroyed his presidency over something that was totally irrelevant to his electoral victory.
From what I can tell without hearing the infamous seventeen minutes of lost tape, Nixon's biggest mistake was being loyal to his staff that was involved in these SNAFUs, which he personally had no knowledge of before the acts. Instead, he tried to delay and hide facts he learned, and as we all know by now, in politics cover-ups are often more scandalous than the secrets. President Clinton wasn't impeached for having affairs but for lying about it repeatedly, including under oath.
I still voted for the losing candidate in the 1972 election, but after Nixon resigned, I decided to become a Republican. I really don't have any good reason for that choice except that I figured we needed a two party system, and it seemed like all young people had become Democrats. Years later, I decided I liked the idea of more limited government, lower taxes and strong military, which is essentially most Republican platforms, but it's not unusual for staunch Republicans to find me liberal and Democrats to find me to be conservative. Maybe I just like to debate people. Here's another controversial statement: I now think Nixon was a pretty good president, and the country would have been better off had he not been brought down. Then again, here's a poem I wrote for an English class in 1974 (putting words on any subjedt into this type of format was the poetry assignment, so don't blame me that it doesn't look or sound like a sonnet):
President
Happy Confident
Smiling Waving Shaving
Neck Nick Ellsburg Watergate
Denying Lying Crying
Rejected Dejected
Dick
If I had my life to do over again, I might have chosen to help with political campaigns while attending a good college like UCLA to build the foundations for a career in politics. Not only do I enjoy the debates and thinking about national issues, I would love to have the benefits of members of Congress. I'm not sure how the campaign slogan, "Vote for me. I need the benefits," would go over, but it might be refreshing over all the phony stump speaches by today's crop of professional politicians who pander and lie in non-stop campaigns to get re-elected before they're even sworn in for their current term.
For as long as I can remember, I've watched talking heads ask politicians straightforward questions that are spun in completely odd directions with answers programmed to spit out information only tangentially relevant to the issue. Debating sides go around either side of the actual hard-hitting questions. Come to think of it, the way this blog moves in and out of whatever the nominal topic might indicate I would also miss the actual point.
Instead of a life split between Washington D.C., my home town and political junkets, I've lived the life of a low budget Anthony Bourdain ("No Reservations" on the Travel channel), and in all likelihood, it has resulted in a happier lifestyle.
