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Nixon certainly made mistakes, but he at least had the personal honor to resign. If only a few Democratic presidents had the same honor........
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He hardly did an honorable act. He persisted in maintainig his position long after his activities in the planning of illegal acts and the subsequent attempts to abuse the powers of his office to conceal his and his accomplices' acts and to intimidate critics and investigators. If he had been at all honorable, he would have immediately owned up to his crimes, resigned and manfully faced the consequences of his actions. Instead, he struggled to cling to his power all the whille compounding his guilt. When he did resign, he did so only after a deal had been secured to pardon him for his crime while he left his most loyal accomplices and supporters to face prosecution and prison ("twisting slowly in the wind" is the phrase I recall Nixon once used to describe a similar situation regarding one of his enemies). As current news illustrates, petty cowards, political tyrants, and just plain empowered bullies are prone to overstay their welcome... or, as Gerald Ford put it "a long national nightmare"...
It is indeed a contrast to Nixon that his predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, who faced with growing opposition to his policies, rather than put the nation through a even further divisive re-election campaign, chose instead to let the people of the U.S., through the ballot, to decide the course of their future. Sadly, they made an ill choice. I recall seeing an interview Johnson did after he left office (and during the beginnings of the "America, Love It or Leave It" fervor) where the interviewer asked why he didn't just hold out and make his policies "America's Policies". He responded that he could have wrapped himself in the Flag and probably would have won re-election, but it would have been wrong. He said his policies were just that -- his policies. If the people of the U.S. were so opposed to his ideas and actions, they deserved the chance to effect a change.
He was an honorable man...
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'Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.'
Ben Franklin
"When fascism comes to America, it will be win the wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." --Sinclair Lewis