More Nostalgia for Richard Nixon

Here a contribution from long time fan and friend Tom Yamaguchi

Paul Krassner has said that the presidency of George W. Bush has made him nostalgic for the Nixon years. Remember those Good Old Days of Watergate with Nixon on tape talking about hush money for the Watergate burglars? "We could do that," Nixon said, "but it would be wrong." That shows the difference between Nixon and Bush, according to Krassner. At least Nixon knew what he was doing was wrong.

As this election year of 2008 draws to a close, let us celebrate more reasons to be nostalgic for Nixon. For instance, remember how John McCain and the Republicans called Obama a socialist for wanting to end Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy? Obama wants to redistribute the wealth, they said. Historians have noticed the irony of McCain calling our progressive income tax a socialistic system while gushing that Teddy Roosevelt was the President he admires the most. TR is largely responsible for the creation of our modern income tax. Yes, Teddy the Republican wanted to tax the rich. He called himself a progressive and would later seek the presidency as a nominee of the Progressive Party. But even as a socialist, Nixon has Teddy beat. When he ran for President in 1968, Nixon had a plan he called the New Federalism. A part of that plan was a negative income tax or Guaranteed Annual Income. Those who failed to earn the minimum amount that kept them out of poverty would be paid the difference by the government. Everyone would be guaranteed an income. Or, as the Republicans today would say, Nixon wanted to redistribute the wealth.

So Nixon was a socialist? How about Communist? Nixon did go to Communist China and opened up trade with the Communist Chinese government. But don't feel too bad Republicans. By going to China, Nixon may have ended the Cold War. At least that is the way Al Haig sees it. Haig was Nixon's Chief of Staff and Reagan's Secretary of State. In a recent interview with the conservative new magazine Newsmax, Haig says that Nixon had more to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War than anything Reagan did. In fact, Haig admits that Reagan did little during his presidency, having never fully recovered from the assassination attempt. Haig goes on to admit that the Soviet system was doomed to failure anyway. The collapse was only a matter of time. But he credits Nixon, not Reagan, for the hastening of that collapse, telling Newsmax, “I happen to think China and that initiative is the most important foreign policy event of the century, and has proven to be so."

Haig blames the neocons for the mess we are in today, including our deteriorating relations with Russia and the disastrous handling of the Iraq War. Nixon was definitely not a neocon. That's probably the best reason to be nostalgic.

Link to Newmax.com interview with Alexander Haig:
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/haig_obama/2008/12/14/161751.html?s=al&promo_code=749A-1