Let's talk about Nixon

I was in college for Earth Day. I followed Watergate in newspapers (the kind that were printed on paper)in graduate school. Indeed trying to keep track of the narrative got in the way of working on my thesis, though it aided my understanding of narratology.

If you asked a Martian, he/she/it would surely think, based on pure policy analysis, that Nixon was somewhere to the left of Bill Clinton. I blame it all on Ronald Reagan.
 
originally posted by Bwood:
originally posted by Yule Kim:
Apparently, Nixon knew that Congress was set on creating a federal environmental protection agency and making it an independent commission (like the SEC or FEC). Under an independent commission, the members of the commission often serve terms that are longer than a presidential term. Also, commission members can only be removed with cause and do not serve solely under the pleasure of the President. So, rather than having that, Nixon decided to compromise by approving the creation of the EPA as a federal agency with an Administrator appointed by the President and who could be removed without cause, thus ensuring the agency would always be run by individuals appointed by the current president.
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I think that's true. There was a groundswell of interest in living in places where the rivers didn't spontaneously combust, and tap water was not too many ppm of DDT. So Nixon wanted to co-opt the issue to win the next election cycle.

Ok, who remembers Earth Day?
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This is it. Like his democratic counterpart, Johnson, Nixon was a consummate politician. Creating the EPA in the face of the large popular groundswell (epitomized by Earth Day, 1970) curried political favor with a lot of voters without much political quid in return. The tactical considerations Yule points out sound perfectly in character, too.

It's ironic that the foundation for federal environmental policy in the U.S. was laid by a republican: what president since, liberal or conservative, could have established the EPA, and gotten passage of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act extension. Was it Gary Wills in Nixon Agonistes who said he was essentially a liberal president? Just goes to show that politics can be good for something.
 
Nixon is probably my 3rd favorite Lambchop album.

I'd put it behind "How I quit smoking" and "What Another Man Spills" though I really have been listening to "Ohio" quite a bit lately it may be making a run for 3rd place.

"Up With People" is a pretty great song, though.
 
Like Obama, Nixon kept fighting a war he was supposed to stop (actually in the case of Obama, two wars).

Nixon was President before the Republicans thought it was improper to elect anyone with a brain to higher office.
 
Brad, I was counting on you to contribute in this thread. I don't think even Loesberg could have worked in a Star Trek reference.

Excellent job!
 
Actually, I've just been thinking how much Obama reminds me of Spock in those episodes when Spock takes over as captain of the Enterprise.
 
originally posted by Brad Kane:
To quote a famous Vulcan saying, "Only Nixon could have gone to China."
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"And what a wonderful world it would have been if he had stayed there." OLD GALAXY UNIVERSAL TRUTH!
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Steven Spielmann:
And, again policy-wise, Eisenhower was to the left of Jimmy Carter.
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I think I disagree with this, but not with much fervor.
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It's true - read this "Notorious socialist president Dwight D. Eisenhower"
by the liberal curmudgeion

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budiansky.blogspot.com
 
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
I'll start: Nixon, he presided over the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, yet he hated hippies. How is that possible?
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As far as hating hippies, they were also known to be flagrant pot smokers as well as antiwar protesters, so he set John Mitchell in pursuit of increasing Federal power to arrest and incarcerate them. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970. This was seen as a win/win. Oppress hippies and score political points with the "silent majority". So, just be glad he was an alcoholic, ya know?
 
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