Did Nixon Sabotage Himself?

 

Did Nixon Sabotage Himself?

Peter Schultz

 

                  While contemplating the above question, another question occurred to me: Do humans screw up politics or do politics screw up humans?

 

                  That the latter is a sensible question is easily illustrated. For example, Ben Franklin, during the constitutional convention of 1787, argued that the presidency as created would be a flawed office because it would appeal to the ambitious and the avaricious, were the president to salaried. Such men would, Franklin argued, engage in political subversion constantly, so much so, that men of peace wouldn’t seek the office. And, of course, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to sense that Franklin’s critique was not just about a salaried presidency but about the presidency itself. Seems Franklin might have known what he was talking about, no?

 

                  It is comforting to think, as many do, that it is humans who screw up politics, rather than thinking that it is politics that screws up humans. So, it is comforting to think that Nixon sabotaged himself because in that way it is not necessary to wonder about, to question the American political order itself. The fault was not in the system; rather it was in Nixon. And, of course, it is just a short step from blaming Nixon to congratulating the system for “working,” for forcing Nixon to resign in disgrace. Or, as Gerry Ford put it: “Our long, national nightmare is over,” once Nixon had resigned.

 

                  Ah, but what if that nightmare arose not despite but because of the American political order? Now, that would “a horse of a different color,” as my mother use to say.

 

                  And, more generally, what if politics, political life itself, screws humans up, rather than humans screwing up politics, political life? That would be ironic insofar as humans seem to embrace politics, even universally, as the way to ameliorate the human condition, to improve human affairs, even to redeem the human condition. But then perhaps the political realm is, essentially, the realm of the ironic, one where the irony is too often overlooked. A character in a novel I like, who is speculating about politics and political life, wondered that if the German people had been able to laugh at Hitler’s rants and pelted him with sausage skins in beer gardens, the holocaust might have been avoided. Ironically, that speculation makes some sense.

 

                  And another question occurred to me as well: Do humans screw up beauty or does beauty screw up humans? It is hard for me to imagine that beauty, the beautiful screws up humans. Rather, beauty seems to fulfill humans in ways that political life cannot do. That might be worth thinking about.