Bye Bye 38
Gerald Ford
1913 - 2006
I’ve been listening to talking head after talking head after talking head state that Gerald R. Ford’s 1974 pardon of Richard M. Nixon was the right thing to do for the nation. Sorry I can’t agree. It was absolutely the wrong thing to do. It was the right thing to do for politicians for sure, it just wasn’t the right thing to do for the future of democracy.
Had Nixon gone to trial for his many crimes he would most certainly have been convicted. At the nadir of his popularity he was down to about 24% (Bush is currently hovering not far off at around 35%). It would not have been hard to find a jury to convict him and the evidence was overwhelming.
Had Nixon been convicted it would have sent a clear message to future presidents that crimes committed by them while in office are not pardonable. Now wouldn’t that be a good message for GWB to have absorbed? Instead we now, in part due to that pardon, have an atmosphere of we can do anything we want and get away with it; we can lie to the people to take them to an illegal war, we can destroy the economy and civil rights while pretending we are helping those things, we can decide that loyal citizens are traitors simply because they disagree with us (gee sounds a bit like old Milhouse there now doesn’t it.)
No I don’t thin Gerald R. Ford did the US any favors at all by pardoning Nixon. I think he did the US a terrible disservice instead.
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