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Musings for Friday - President Dukakis? Probably Not, But no President Bush I or II Either [1]
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Date: 2023-03-31
I have my own theory about candidates under 6' in the age of television. No mousy voices either (looking at you Ron.)
Yesterday Micheal Beschloss was heard several times on MSNBC telling us (as highlighted in Merlin 196357’s post) that had Richard Nixon not been pardoned by Ford we may not have had Trump.
Thus, this leads into the segment with Michael Beschloss. Reid asked Beschloss for his perspective, and he said it out loud: the American justice and political system has treated presidents like kings. And he went further and stated the obvious. If Richard Nixon had been indicted and convicted of his Watergate crimes, we wouldn’t have had a Donald Trump. Instead, President Ford pardoned Nixon. And Beschloss stated how corrosive this move was on the presidency. Beschloss spoke with Reagan’s Chief of Staff Howard Baker years after the Iran-Contra Affair. Baker let it be known that he had talked with Democrats in Congress, and THEY ALL AGREED THAT REAGAN WOULD NOT BE IMPEACHED OR CHARGED WITH ANY CRIMES! This confirms what the NYT reported many years ago that Democrats didn’t have the stomach to impeach and try Reagan. And this bipartisan cover for Republican Presidents who commit crimes went up to Donald Trump. Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated in 2007 that there would be no impeachment hearings into the Iraq War. Then, President Obama made the famous, “We are looking forward not backwards.” to wave away investigating of George W. Bush.
Beschloss repeated the content of his conversation with Howard Baker throughout the night on multiple MSNBC programs, but not once did I hear a host follow up with what impact impeaching and removing Richard Nixon from office followed by a criminal trial with a conviction would have affected those later elected to the presidency. Could Gerald Ford have been elected in 1976 if he hadn’t pardoned Nixon? Would Jimmy Carter have run in 1976 if Ford hadn’t pardoned Nixon?
We don’t know the answer to these questions because Ford did pardon Nixon and that had a butterfly effect on everything that followed. Without that pardon how would our world look today? Maybe no Reagan? No Reagan equals no Bush I. No Bush I equals no Bush II. Would Dukakis even have been running in 1988?
There are a multitude of things that might have been different had Richard Nixon not have been pardoned by Gerald Ford. The Berlin Wall would have still come down, but Reagan wouldn’t have been given the credit, instead the credit would have gone to those who had opposed the Soviet Union for decades, the dedicated members of our State and Defense Departments. No Bush I might have meant no Bill Clinton. At least not in 1982.
All that said, there’s an old saying that’s appropriate here;
If if and but were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas.
But, because Ford did pardon Nixon, the world of today is the result we have.
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