Worst President of the 20th Century

Voted for Nixon due to a couple reasons.

First is the impeachment, which has been discussed significantly already. In the end, I think his public disgrace, rather than the actual actions leading up to it, has done more to harm the image of the United States and its leader than any other president's actions. And while there has been argument that image is only a minor factor, his impeachment has helped to create wide-scale pessimism for the idea of democracy itself, as the common view now is that all votes are for the lesser of two corrupt evils.

All this being preceded by the resignation of his Vice Pres. under a dark cloud didn't help.

Another strong factor is his handling of the economy during both terms, where he laid the groundwork for supply side economics, and helped fuel inflation which plagued the 80's through price fixing and heavy handed internal regulation / protectionism.

I personally also begrudge him for his handling of the space program, limiting NASA to orbital ferrying runs, rather than the grand dream of Kennedy.

Actually, with all the talk of Vietnam, I'm surprised there aren't a few votes for Kennedy, as he took us from 800 soldiers to over 16000 and set the path for further escalation.

How ya doing, buddy?

None taken. I included the effect of our image in other regions of the world when I made that assessment, which is why I arrived there. One of the main reasons I said this is that while there have been other events which have affected our perception among other nations, few have been so contained to a single presidency, and represented such a shift in such a short time. Most have instead led to a slow erosion of faith and trust in American government happening over decades or more. The impeachment of Nixon, on the other hand, is a single point that helped tip us from being perceived as a land of well meaning elected representatives, who sometimes do wrong, to one of morally corrupt bureaucrats, who only occasionally show their better natures. It also came at a particularly opportune time, right after a long and unpopular war, where his policies created a further perception of lying to the world.

While the immediate effects of this were felt internally and in Europe, or more specifically, our social and military allies, it has propagated into how people of all nations look at us and democracy. Since one of our main tools of conquest is social, the fact that our internal media now openly distrusts its government, means that this viewpoint is the first thing sent abroad. Our own distrust infects everyone our movies, television or print touch.

As one important end, this changes views on adopting democracy in other countries, particularly developing ones, as they start at a point where they already don't trust their leaders. How will democracy be better when it just results in a different breed of scum perverting the system and receiving no justice?

This is why I would also say that Ford did us no favor with his pardon, as it helped the perception that there are never consequences for the powerful, because we don't want to deal with the mess.

All our politics and trade relations are affected by these views, and the first thoughts are always "What does America have to gain?" and "How are they trying to screw us?" since we're now playing in the dirt with them.

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True, and my error of speech. More properly, the impeachment hearings, cover-up scandal, and eventual resignation of Nixon in the face of near-certain impeachment.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.