Friends, you and I both know that Richard Nixon was a great President. Buffeted by the counter-culture, vilified by the media, constantly undermined by the liberal-Democratic establishment, he nonetheless achieved tremendous things for our country -- most importantly, he drove a wedge between the Soviet Union and Red China, and, but for that masterstroke, you and I could be speaking Russian right now, or we could be radioactive dust.
Be all that as it may, Nixon wasn't perfect. He erred, as is human. No, I'm not talking about Watergate. Nixon played the game of politics by the rules that were well-established at the time -- and the establishment decided to alter those rules in the middle of the contest, expressly to destroy Nixon. And so they did.
When I say Nixon was flawed, I'm thinking in particular of his imprudence in expanding the reach and powers of the federal government. The EPA, the EEOC, Title IX -- all were created under Nixon, and all mushroomed into forces for the imposition of (leftist) governmental dictates on the American people, whose liberties correspondingly contracted. Nixon's greatest act of apostasy vis-a-vis limited government, however, came in 1971 with the imposition of price and wage controls. That is the subject of my latest article, along with the parallel that I see to contemporary efforts to regulate prices in the health care system.
Believe me, it pained me to write an article critical of Dick Nixon, unheralded patriot and genius President, but intellectual honesty requires us to acknowledge that even our heroes can be wrong. Nixon erred, Reagan erred -- heck, even Trump slips up every once in a while. Let's learn from their mistakes, shall we?
Note that this article appears on the website of the Foundation for Economic Education. I'm very honored to be featured there.
https://fee.org/articles/even-nixon-s-ghost-agrees-that-price-controls-wont-fix-our-broken-health-care-system/
Dr. Waddy: I am as unschooled in economics as to be mostly incapable of a credible opinion on it. Nevertheless, I am of course supportive of a prudently and sparingly regulated free market because it has PROVEN the key to prosperity and all of its myriad benefits. My only comment is this: how many people already covered by insurance inadvertently access nonnetwork providers? Is it enough to warrant a potentially harmful government intrusion?
ReplyDeleteI THINK President Nixon also supported the establishment of the now proven snobbish and disdainfully leftist National Endowment for the Arts. The amount it wastes is small, compared to other disgraces but its the attitude which gets to me because it shows how the elitists view all of their limousine liberal presumptions. "Why, are you antiart? Well!" No but I defy those who arrogate the use of my tax dollars to enable "art" which sneers at my values and those of the majority of Americans. Why,one might think you seek to "educate" us rubes, whether we like it or not. Do so on your own dollar, thank you. We can always hope that a common sense courageous President like President Trump, will take the choice out of your dismissive hands in his second term.
I share your regret at criticizing a good man like President Nixon and I am sorry now for the disdain I had for him in my salad days. But your comments are objective and well supported.
Hear hear on the free market! As for health insurance, it's incredibly complex. I'm not opposed to regulation, but why can't we have it at the state level? Why must the feds dominate everything? No good reason that I can see.
ReplyDeleteI checked, and it looks like the NEA was LBJ's baby. I agree you that it's a tragedy what it's become. Who would have thought the federal government could take something as benign -- nay, uplifting! -- as art and turn it into an abomination? That's a sign of the times, and a sign of how low our cultural elite has sunk.
Dr. Waddy: Sorry for my inaccuracy; I'm glad it wasn't President Nixon. The NEA is yet another proof of the left's essential totalitarianism - they mean to take control of EVERYTHING, after the pattern their murderous predecessors set in the 20th century.
ReplyDeleteAs Reagan said so eloquently, the most chilling words in the English language are "I'm from the federal government, and I'm here to help." Federal largesse always comes with infernal strings attached.
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