In Stark Contrast
Richard Nixon's Acceptance Speech & Inaugural Address
Recently, I’ve been reading Richard Nixon’s memoirs - written by a flawed man, who nevertheless presided over the Moon Landing and the birth of the Internet, brought us all of our major environmental legislation, and negotiated an era of peace between the US, Soviet Union, and China. A man who resigned when caught attempting to remain in office through cheating, for the good of the country. A stark contrast to the failed insurrectionist, and convicted con artist, to whom We the People have just surrendered our government of the people, by the people, for the people.
For your consideration, I offer you Richard Nixon’s acceptance speech from the 1968 Republican Convention, and his I969 Inaugural Address - which stand in stark contrast to what we’ve heard from Donald Trump. If only…
Some excerpts, and links to the full speeches. They make for good reading, and merit deep consideration in these troubling times.
As we look at America, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame.
We hear sirens in the night.
We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad.
We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home.
And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish.
Did we come all this way for this?
Did American boys die in Normandy, and Korea, and in Valley Forge for this?
Each moment in history is a fleeting time, precious and unique. But some stand out as moments of beginning, in which courses are set that shape decades or centuries.
This can be such a moment.
Forces now are converging that make possible, for the first time, the hope that many of man's deepest aspirations can at last be realized. The spiraling pace of change allows us to contemplate, within our own lifetime, advances that once would have taken centuries.
In throwing wide the horizons of space, we have discovered new horizons on earth.
For the first time, because the people of the world want peace, and the leaders of the world are afraid of war, the times are on the side of peace.
Eight years from now America will celebrate its 200th anniversary as a nation. Within the lifetime of most people now living, mankind will celebrate that great new year which comes only once in a thousand years--the beginning of the third millennium.
What kind of a nation we will be, what kind of a world we will live in, whether we shape the future in the image of our hopes, is ours to determine by our actions and our choices.
The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This honor now beckons America--the chance to help lead the world at last out of the valley of turmoil and onto that high ground of peace that man has dreamed of since the dawn of civilization.
If we succeed, generations to come will say of us now living that we mastered our moment, that we helped make the world safe for mankind.
This is our summons to greatness.
I believe the American people are ready to answer this call.
If only we could expect similar sentiments, and results from Donald Trump. Instead, we can expect a full serving of Flavor Aid, as we bid adieu to our American Experiment in E Pluribus Unum, on Martin Luther King Day, 1/20/2025. Government of the people, by the people, for the people, Rest in Pieces.
And now, it falls again to us, to We the People, to pick up the pieces and move forward.
Wow. Thanks for the reminder about the way things used to be - or at least the rhetoric we used to hear.
I have to add, I wish we could have heard rhetoric around peace like this from Kamala Harris as well. Instead we got "the most lethal military in the world".