Nixon Now
Sitting at a different location then usual for blogging purposes tonight, I glanced to the left of the keyboard and saw Richard Nixon's smiling face.
It wasn't a vision or a dream, but rather a campaign pin from 1972. "Nixon Now" the button says in big capital letters.
I look at the button now, as I have several times before. I have no idea how it got where it is, and I have no idea how it keeps moving around. I assume it's my father's, but what's weird is that my dad, while Republican, was never a big Nixon guy.
I guess I am amused by its presence. The button sits there, as if it is unaware of the 33 years that followed its creation. Nixon getting in a lot of trouble, Nixon resigning, the Republican disarray that led to the Carter years, and the emergence of Ronald Reagan.
Then the ensuing 14 years, including Nixon's death.
The pin is unaware that Nixon is no longer with us.
"Nixon Now" it implores.
I think of one of my favorite professor's in college, in a Vietnam class I took. I remember what he said about the 37th President.
"Richard Nixon was a terrible father, a terrible husband, a terrible man, an anti-Semite, and a liar," he said. "But he was ... an effective president."
Republicans, and many others, it seems, are still trying to come to grips with his legacy. Of all the presidents, he is likely the most vilified. I still am not sure if he deserves to be the most hated. Certainly, there is some evidence that some corrupt men occupied that chair.
Still, the pin has no idea. It is looking for four more years.